Possibility of Nuclear War

By a Correspondent

The United States is the world's largest nuclear military power and one that is continuing to wage destruction and slaughter by air raids in the Middle East and continues to use Okinawa island to house its base and prepare for a new war: a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula. And Obama is the commander in chief of the United States Armies. How can one call this warmonger "a figure of hope for the elimination of nuclear weapons" or a "messenger of peace"?

Obama and the US government have repeatedly refused to apologize for the atomic bombings on Hiroshima. In truth Obama and his government do not allow any attempt to question the legitimacy of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By inviting Obama to Hiroshima, Abe himself tried to deny the responsibility for Japan's war of aggression just as Obama evades US responsibility for the A-bombs. By denying responsibility for the war, Abe actually aimed to open a way forward a new imperialist war : nuclear war.

"As long as these weapons exist, the United States will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary... But we go forward with no illusions. Some countries will break the rules. That's why we need a structure in place that ensures when any nation does, they will face consequences." This is the crux of Obama's Prague speech in April 2009.

In fact, the Obama administration has been maintaining and evolving its nuclear forces. Obama plans to spend $1 trillion to modernize nuclear weapons over 30 years. For this reason, 12 subcritical nuclear tests and new types of nuclear tests were carried out between November 2010 and 2014. In addition, the USA has entirely opposed on many occasions any resolution for banning nuclear weapons. The very person who has strongly supported this outrageous USA policy is Abe, who insists on the need for a nuclear deterrent while advocating Japan as the "only bombed nation" in the world. Abe's aim is that Japan becomes "a potential nuclear power" by restarting nuclear power plants and developing rocket technology. With the recent Cabinet decision that both the possession and use of nuclear weapons are constitutional, the Abe administration has explicitly revealed its intention for nuclear armament.

"The USA must monopolize nuclear weapons". "The nation which does not follow the USA's rules should face consequences." This logic to justify nuclear monopoly and nuclear war is totally incompatible with the anti-war will of the workers and people, most of all the survivors of the atom bombs, known as the hibakusha.

This January, Obama dispatched the strategic nuclear bomber B52 over the Korean Peninsula to counter North Korea's nuclear tests with the aim of demonstrating that the US was ready to actually carry out a nuclear war. Then from March through April, he enforced the largest US-ROK joint military exercises ever on the assumption of a nuclear war. On February 24th, USFK (the United States Forces Korea) commander testified at the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing: "If a collision occurs on the Korean Peninsula, the situation becomes the equal to that of the WW-II. The scale of troops and weapons involved is comparable to that of the Korean War or the WW-II. There will be a great number of dead and wounded due to its more complicated character."

The USA military is now thoroughly calculating and intends to execute a plan of a Korean war (nuclear war), one which will exceed the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the orders of Obama, commander in chief.

War and the nuke are indispensable for the capitalists and the dominant power of the 1% to rule and divide the working people of the 99% : they try to bring antagonism among working people of the world and force them to kill each other for the interests of imperialism. The world is witnessing the politics of "killing workers" such as dismissal, irregularization, ultra-low wages and overwork, and the politics of suppressing struggles such as those against war, nuclear arms and power, and military bases. The aggressive war (nuclear war) is the continuation of these politics and it's Obama and Abe who are enforcing these politics.

The working people of the 99% will unite and achieve international solidarity to fight back firmly against the rulers of the 1%. This is the only way to eliminate war and nuclear arms. The primary task is to do is forming solidarity with the KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions), who is fighting with repeated decisive general strikes against the new Korean war being prepared by the "Korea-USA-Japan military alliance".

Frontier
Vol. 49, No.10, Sep 11 - 17, 2016