Aaron Bushnell just couldn’t take any more.
He couldn’t bear to see any more people eviscerated and incinerated by American bombs dropped by Israelis on innocent Palestinians.
So, in his Air Force uniform, he walked determinedly to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and set himself on fire.
In a letter to the Inspector-General of the U.S. State Department, a national veterans’ organization yesterday demanded the State Department terminate weapons shipments to Israel and called on the Inspector General to investigate alleged criminal acts by senior Biden administration officials in violation of U.S. law, including ratified treaties, which are the supreme law of the land.
Josh Paul, former State Department senior official who resigned over weapons shipments to Israel said, “The Secretary and all relevant officials under his purview should take this letter from Veterans For Peace with the utmost seriousness. It is a stark reminder of the importance of abiding by the laws and policies that relate to arms transfers.”
Continue reading “Veterans Demand Termination of Weapons to Israel”
As military veterans who have experienced the deadly threat of nuclear weapons from the Cuban Missile Crisis onward, as well as being distraught and outraged by what is now going on in Gaza, we must warn against the potential of a wider war in the Middle East, one that could even lead to nuclear war.
The massive and relentless Israeli bombing of Gaza has been indiscriminate – if not actually targeting civilians. Over 10,000 Gazan residents have been killed to date, including at least 4,000 children. Many victims remain beneath the rubble. It is almost as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped.
Continue reading “Veterans For Peace: Gaza Massacre Could Lead to Nuclear War”
The historic Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat is preparing to sail to Cuba at the end of December. The storied wooden boat, which was sailed toward the Marshall Islands in 1958 to interfere with US nuclear testing, is currently in Tampa Bay, Florida. The 34-foot ketch belongs to Veterans For Peace, and carries out an important part of its mission, “to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.”
“We are on an educational mission,” says Golden Rule Project Manager Helen Jaccard. “We are three-and-a-half months into a 15-month, 11,000 mile voyage around the “Great Loop” of the midwestern, southern and northeastern United States. When we saw we would be in Key West, Florida at the end of December, we said, ‘Hey, look, Havana is only 90 miles away!’ And the world almost had a nuclear war over Cuba.”
Continue reading “The Golden Rule Peace Boat Is Sailing to Cuba”
Dear President Biden,
We, members of Veterans For Peace who are concerned about the growing possibility of nuclear war, have researched and written our own Nuclear Posture Review, with the goal of reducing the risk of nuclear war and ultimately eliminating all nuclear weapons. Because your own Nuclear Posture Review has not yet been released, we strongly encourage you to put it on hold while you review the Nuclear Posture Review of Veterans For Peace.
The war in Ukraine, with its relentless escalation toward a possible nuclear confrontation, is of great concern to the American public, including those in uniform and veterans who have experienced the chaos and trauma of war; so we are also eager to see your Nuclear Posture Review, Mr. President. We deserve a full accounting of your nuclear planning. We want to know what you and your advisers consider reasonable during this time of confrontation between the US and Russia, which between them hold the lion’s share of the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons.
The Veterans for Peace Nuclear Abolition Working Group was honored to present an important talk by Ray McGovern, who discussed the origins of the war in Ukraine and how it could too easily escalate into a nuclear war.
Ray speaks for about 40 minutes, followed by a lively Q&A and discussion. The entire recording goes over 2 hours.
Also see “US Counting on Putin To Signal Before Using Nukes” by Ray McGovern, May 12, 2022 and “Intel Vets: Nuclear Weapons Cannot Be Un-Invented.”
Thanks to Ellen Thomas and Helen Jaccard for uploading the Zoom recording and posting it on YouTube.
