By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, April 23, 2023 https://worldbeyondwar.org/having-enemies-is-a-choice/ What’s something that nobody can give you unless you want it? An enemy. This ought to be obviously true in both the personal sense and the international sense. In your personal life, you acquire enemies by seeking them out and choosing to have them. And if, through no fault of your own, someone is cruel to you, the option remains of not behaving cruelly in return. The option remains of not even thinking anything cruelly in return. That option might be extremely difficult. That option might be one that you […]
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Only Rogue States Have Nuclear Weapons
By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, originally published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021 From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going up around Seattle that proclaim “Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal. Get them out of Puget Sound!” What can this possibly mean? Nuclear weapons may be unpleasant, but what is illegal about them, and how can they be in Puget Sound? Since 1970, under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, most nations have been forbidden to acquire nuclear weapons, and those already possessing them — […]
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11 people cited at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, marking the 74th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombing
60 people were present on August 5th at a flash mob demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. The demonstration was in the roadway at the Main Gate of the Trident nuclear submarine base during rush hour traffic. To see flash mob performance and related videos, please see https://www.facebook.com/groundzerocenter. At around 6:30 AM on Monday, over thirty flash mob dancers and supporters entered the roadway carrying peace flags and two large banners stating, “We can all live without Trident” and “Abolish Nuclear Weapons.” While traffic into the base was blocked, dancers performed to a recording of War […]
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No war should be called ‘good’
By David Swanson Originally published in the Kitsap Sun, July 27, 2019 The nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago this August 6th and 9th did not save lives. They took lives, possibly 200,000 of them. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” One dissenter who had […]
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David Swanson to be keynote speaker at GZ Hiroshima/Nagasaki Weekend
Noted peace activist David Swanson, director of WorldBeyondWar.org and author of numerous books including “War Is a Lie,” will be keynote speaker at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action’s (www.gzcenter.org) Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemoration event Aug. 11-14th and will address the gathering by video on Sunday, August 13th. More about David Swanson here: davidswanson.org/about Swanson’s speech will highlight a weekend of nuclear resistance events at the Poulsbo, WA peace house, which sits on 3.8 acres and shares a border fence with the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, West Coast home port to the Trident nuclear weapon system. The public is invited. All events […]
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