Recently announced assessment of Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Material availability
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On Sunday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin "Dont, Don't, Don't" use nuclear weapons in retaliation for battlefield losses in Ukraine.
While Putin dismissed Biden's worries as unfounded, the specter of nuclear Armageddon drove U.S. anti-war activists last week to the streets in a September Week of Action organized by the Peace in Ukraine Coalition.
Demanding a "Ceasefire now!" activists hosted anti-war events in D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Madison, Boston, Rockville, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles.
The Peace in Ukraine Coalition, CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, Democratic Socialists of America, Massachusetts Peace Action, Women's International League for Peace, and Freedom-U.S., and other organizations, mobilized for negotiations, not escalation, in what CODEPINK describes as a proxy war threatening a direct war between the two most heavily armed nuclear nations, the United States and Russia.
With Biden asking Congress for another $13.7 billion for Ukraine, $7.2 billion for weapons and military training, activists delivered letters to their House and U.S. Senate representatives, some letters simply urging a ceasefire, others pushing for a no vote on the next weapons request folded into a $47 billion Covid relief bill.
That bill, called a continuing resolution, must be voted on in one form or another by Sept. 30 to avoid a federal government shutdown.
If the resolution passes with Biden's request, military analysts say it would bring this year's total for Ukraine to $67 billion. The amount allotted for weapons, military training and intelligence could surpass $40 billion, four times the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency during an existential climate crisis of wildfires, droughts, storms, and rising sea levels.
Week of Action
In the nation's capital CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Col. Ann Wright and other activists, kicked off the Week of Action, going door-to-door to the offices of the House Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), where the most natural anti-war allies would, theoretically, be found.
While some members of the caucus call for much-needed diplomacy and raise concerns about the risk of nuclear war, either through a miscalculation, or an intentional first strike, not one member of the nearly 100-member CPC will commit to voting against more weapons for Ukraine.
Benjamin told the press,
"Further escalation should be unthinkable, but so should a long war of endless crushing artillery barrages and brutal urban and trench warfare that slowly and agonizingly destroys Ukraine, killing hundreds of Ukrainians with each day that passes. The only realistic alternative to this endless slaughter is a return to peace talks to bring the fighting to an end."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer do not make it easy for Democrats to break ranks, as the Republicans are doing ahead of the midterms, on the question of weapons for Ukraine.
Pelosi & Schumer
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