By Adrian Olivier
On Wednesday, June 12, German think tank the Schiller Institute organized a press conference on the imminent danger of nuclear war, held at the National Press Club in Washington D. C.
The Schiller Institute is a German-based economic and political think tank founded in 1984 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the widow of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche.
The Schiller Institute promotes the ideas of the LaRouche Movement, including global financial reorganization.
The press conference involved Scott Ritter, former Virginia state senator Richard Black, Helga Zepp-LaRouche and former Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson.
The speakers warned of the precarious situation the world is in and said that Western support of Ukraine – and its strikes on Russian nuclear early-warning radar systems – is goading the Russians into a potential nuclear war. There was also a call issued for a million Americans to take to the streets and make it known that they do not want to risk nuclear war with Russia.
Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer warned that Americans should be afraid of an imminent nuclear war.
America, he said, is “at imminent risk of nuclear Armageddon.”
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has the world at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest its been to midnight since its creation in 1947.
Ritter was recently prevented from reaching his destination of St. Petersburg, Russia to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He was pulled off his plane and had his passport seized in the U.S.
Mr. Ritter warned that America was in a far more dangerous period today than it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the Soviets attempted to station nuclear missiles in Cuba.
He blamed George W. Bush for making the decision to make the U.S. nuclear arsenal usable and operating under the notion that the U.S. was the supreme nuclear power which could intimidate other countries into submission – a policy which he said has not worked.
Today, Ritter said, there is no diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia and railed against the lack of communication between the Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov and American counterparts.
“He's been sitting there for several years and his phone is not ringing. We are not calling him. We are not talking to him. There is no diplomacy today. And yet, our two countries are at war. On a course, a collision course that could very well lead to a nuclear conflict,” Ritter said.
He said that other nations, including Russia, will no longer tolerate what he said was the American political and military establishment seeking global nuclear supremacy.
In response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian nuclear infrastructure, Ritter warned that Russia’s nuclear posture regards a threat to its nuclear infrastructure as existential and legitimized the use of their nuclear weapons in response. He called for an immediate dialogue with the Russians.
Richard Black, the former state senator, said that American nuclear doctrine is offensive – in contrast to official Chinese, Indian and Russian nuclear doctrines which are defensive – with the president granted “unfettered authority to launch a nuclear strike for any reason or for no reason at all.”
Black criticized American support for Ukraine and said that Ukraine was never a vital United States interest. He warned that Russia has more nuclear weapons than the U.S. and should not be antagonized with American involvement in a country on its doorstep.
He also warned that French President Emmanuel Macron’s sending of French troops into Ukraine, ostensibly as trainers, would lead to their engagement in battle.
Black said that the White House has become increasingly more desperate and is willing to attempt more and more reckless actions, which could lead to a nuclear accident and nuclear war.
He said that there is a constant escalation in the type of equipment provided to Ukraine. “There's somebody who says, why don't we give them M1 tanks? Well, why don't we give them HIMARS missiles? Why don't we do the ATACMS, even though they can reach way out into Russia with those? How about F 16 jets? Um, how about, you know, shouldn't we be talking about tactical or tactical nuclear bombs?”
Later in the conversation, Black clarified that he doesn’t envision the U.S. providing nuclear weapons to Ukraine. Ritter concurred.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, speaking from Germany via video link, called for adherence to the 10 principles of a new international security and development architecture that she issued in 2022. Among the principles are the eradication of poverty, reorganization of the global financial system and the belief that man is fundamentally good.
Zepp-LaRouche called for a new paradigm in international relations, using the Peace of Westphalia as an example, which took the interests of all parties into account.
The Peace of Westphalia ended the Eighty Years’ War and the Thirty Years’ War in 1648.
She criticized the Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI and led to the outbreak of WWII as a treaty which did not consider the interest of every country.
Zepp-LaRouche praised the Brazilian-Chinese proposal for peace in Ukraine and said the Swiss peace summit on June 15-16 is doomed to fail without Russian involvement.
It is unclear how a peace negotiation could take place between two warring parties when one is not invited.
She warned that Western establishments are playing a game of nuclear chicken with Russia and have convinced themselves that the Russians are merely bluffing.
She also called for massive economic development for the poorest parts of the world to prevent global conflict.
Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired colonel and chief of staff to Colin Powell filled in for Ray McGovern, who was meant to speak at the conference.
Wilkerson recalled a conversation with Daniel Ellsberg – who released the Pentagon Papers and ignited a national firestorm – in which Ellsberg said the world is closer to nuclear war than ever before.
“The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is right. The hand is moving so close to midnight that you can hardly decipher the clock. We are that close to nuclear conflict. This is Dan Ellsberg,” Wilkerson said.
In his time travelling across America, Wilkerson said he had realized that Americans have forgotten what it is like to fear nuclear war.
“I used to go in the basement of my school when I was a youngster and sit there with my head in my lap as the teacher instructed us. The how to perform because we were doing a nuclear drill. We don't have any idea in this nation anymore of what nuclear weapons can do. And then the last, we had a principle during the Cold War,” he said.
Wilkerson said he thought Biden cannot abandon Ukraine for political reasons – at least until the election is over – because cutting and running would be punished by the American people.
