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As a former British soldier
who served in NATO's Wars
I've never been more concerned
for the future of humanity.
We have nuclear armed states
squaring up to each other
we have Ukraine backed by nuclear
powers facing a nuclear power
firing missiles into nuclear
power's territory.
The Ukraine war could take
us all down with it.
At the same time happening you
have Israel led by Netanyahu
desperate to hold on to power.
Itself a nuclear armed state backed by
nuclear armed states looking at Iran
as a way to extend his
own hold on power.
Things are really, really
dire at the moment.
And we have to be very clear now
that criticising this march to war
is not treacherous or traitorous and
it shouldn't be seen in that way
it's really about survival
potentially human survival.
It's very clear to me having been in the
military that the vast majority of people
who fight and die and are injured
and traumatised in the wars
are not the children of the people who
advance the narrow foreign policy goals,
they're not the ruling classes kids
they're not Tony Blair's kids.
They are overwhelmingly the children
of the poor working class
maybe the lower middle class who go
and fight and suffer in these wars.
And that's just the people we're
sending it will also be the case
that the people who are affected the civilians
who were caught up in the wars
at the other end and that should
be intolerable to us.
I think one of the problems is
that the the political class
feel they can get away with it.
Joe Biden, Kier Starmer,
David Lammy, Macron,
the Western leaders as an entity
none of you would fight
on the the front line
and you certainly wouldn't expect your
kids to so don't expect us to either.
It seems mad the way they
back genocide in Gaza
with the full spectrum of military
equipment on a civilian population
while carrying on in the completely
opposite way in terms of their rhetoric
and their actions with
Russia and Ukraine.
It's such a powerful thing to see it, see that
hypocrisy operating at the same time.
It's not that long ago that Kier Starmer
commented very powerfully
on the ICC's issuing of arrest an
against Vladimir Putin
over a year later the
ICC came out
with arrest warrants for
Gallant and Netanyahu
and Starmer is yet to
even comment on it.
This is just the latest example of how the
facade of international law this idea of a
global rules-based order is coming apart as the
West's own institutions like the ICC which is
one of the highest CTS created by the west and it
seems like the West isn't even willing to enforce
its own laws this is a sign of decay in Western
institutions and it could be seen as a precursor
to global war Biden is very busy sending arms
to Ukraine he's trying to make sure that it
won't be easy for Donald Trump to come into power
take office in January and just turn off the tap
there have to be questions about Biden's Fitness
we've certainly seen in recent years evidence to
suggest there are limitations on his abilities
and this is a man who is making decisions which
quite literally decide the future of the world
but I don't think the real power rels with him
obviously there are corporate interests there
are insiders in Washington who are a kind of
permanent government if you like and there are
arms firms big corporations who are actually
making these decisions which shape Imperial
politics in Washington and by extension shape
the politics of allies around the world including
us in Britain here starm has been quite tight
lipped on the use of a relatively small amount
of missiles at 2 million a pop in case of the
Storm Shadow missiles what the rationale is for
sending them to be used cuz there are so few and
it doesn't seem like they can really make a major
tactical change or a strategic change to the war
in Ukraine and we also have to consider Putin's
use of hypersonic ballistic missiles part of
retaliation he's sending a message he's using
missiles which could have a nuclear payload on
them and there's this kind of sense of escalation
back and forth between Ukraine by which we also
mean by extension the west and Russia and I
think by doing that he's sending a message
he's saying there could be mushroom clouds over
Kiev and I think it just adds to the sense of
tension and danger which we have at the moment
Putin's just Rewritten Russian nuclear Doctrine
so that he would be able to retaliate not just if
they're attack by a nuclear state but if they're
attacked by a state whose weapons were supplied
by nuclear state so this is a very very precarious
situation it seems like there's a real ramping
up there's a sense of something quite awful of
something kind of uncoiling of this threat of war
uncoiling in a way that we haven't seen for many
many years so we've recently seen NATO Chief
Mark rut talking about the need to change the
trajectory of the war in Ukraine and we can kind
of in a sense we can get behind that I mean it's
not a bad idea we need to change it um away from
a nuclear war obviously but there is a question
I think about how well NATO is positioned to do
that we have an organization which is Cold War
Relic there to advance Western American Imperial
power there has to be a question about how well
positioned NATO is to alter the trajectory of
this war in a positive sense it could certainly
help alter it in a really negative sense where we
can see broader conf spilling into other countries
and we have to remember always that there are
nuclear Powers involved you can imagine a scenario
the scenario was reversed that if Russia was
pushing up bases positioning missiles in Canada
and in Mexico the countries around the us or its
colonies you can imagine what the response would
be to that I mean it probably be all out War it'd
be all out aggression we're not pro- Russia when
we say that but it would be good if the Western
countries Britain and the US would just think
about operating at a consistent standard because
the hypocrisy and double standard is really really
apparent foreign policy consensus is maintained
farmed guarded by a tiny group of people many
of them whom have vested interests and it is
completely opposite to the general consensus in
the polls around the world west and elsewhere in
terms of support for the wars in Gaza the wars in
Ukraine and what it speaks to is just a complete
disengage between the ruling class and the rest of
the world between the people who make and enforce
this foreign policy consensus which is completely
discredit credited it's the consensus which gave
us Iraq and Afghanistan and no one's apologizing
for those anymore us defense spending in 2023
was nudging a trillion dollars and the US defense
budget is 40% of world of global defense spending
of which billions and billions of billions under
the AIS under the guise of it going to to allies
like Ukraine actually just go straight into the
pockets of global arms firms you can imagine just
taking a fraction of that put it into dealing with
just the basic problems of America a country with
with no Health Care like we enjoy just a fraction
of that into the opiate crisis into poverty you
can imagine the difference it would make but
because of this consensus which is austerity
at home and aggression and violence overseas
that money which could be used to help people is
just thrown into the gutter of war and militarism
according to K STA and Rachel reefs they have
decided that we have to suffer advancing what
are clearly Tory policies we have to suffer but at
the same time there are vast billions billions of
pounds which can just be fritted away supporting
Israel in its genocides pouring arms and Munitions
into Ukraine in a war that might devastate the
world let alone the region and it just seems to
me that it cannot stand and we have to think
about how we're going to change that and stop
looking to Parliament get up off our knees and
think about how we can do it how we can do it how
workingclass people can do it how normal people
can develop a foreign policy and a domestic policy
and proper Provisions for welfare and housing
all these really important things the real
stuff is it's always the case you have to do it
yourself in the end not all of us all remember
but in the ' 80s there was a fascinating artistic
intervention in the form of a film called threads
set in Sheffield of all places which was about
the true phase of nuclear war and what happens
afterwards as everyone's going watch it it's a
really kind of totemic really powerful culture
is really important we need to revitalize
that humans are capable of incredible things
of making incredible art making incredible culture
of empathy and of working together and the tragedy
is particularly against the background of Wars
threatening is that a small Elite of people in
pursuit of their own enrichment have forced all
these wonderful and amazing and empathetic people
of all their creative potential into a system uh
which drives us increasingly towards war and that
is a terrifying thing and I think there's a choice
here about which way we go next particularly under
the threat of nuclear Armageddon and how we think
about our tactics and our strategies for getting
there getting to that better place as someone who
believes in change from below and studies history
from below I think we need to talk about a proper
workingclass foreign policy and where that comes
from a proper foreign policy from below and we
need to talk about that in terms of the anti-war
movement as it is now and how we start to tie that
together I think we need to re-energize the peace
movement a re-energize CND re-energize stop the
war but then we also look at the targeted direct
action stuff with Israeli arms manufacturers in
the UK for example great stuff Insurgent stuff
there's people out they're putting their freedom
on the line and losing it in some cases then we
have to look at the the missing what's missing in
this and I think it's organized workers unionized
workers there are some really good signs there's
been some really good stuff in the last year from
the United Auto Workers in the US many of whom are
veterans who've seen the other end of War as well
who are talking about how we can stop arms being
deployed about the role of work class power in
that particularly in terms of workers in airports
Dockers workers who control vital choke points
in the economy and how we combine those with the
protest movement with the more direct action based
slowing down the arms trade shipments of weapons
and we need that kind of unity across those three
different tactics and how you make them synergized
I think what's missing is organized labor doing
stuff there is a long history of direct action
workers stopping armed ship Dockers for example
stopping armed shipments going in and out and if
the working class decides and this is a question
about how we formulate our own power how we think
about ourselves and what we can do stop waiting
for politicians to do it because if the working
class decides nothing moves economies closed down
that has to be the way forward because the working
class needs to flex its muscle when it comes to
Wars because it will be your kids if you're a
worker and you who will be sent to die in them
in times like these it becomes very clear that
voices for peace and reason have very little space
in the media and so now it's more important than
ever to support independent journalists like us at
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