Col. Richard H. Black (ret.)

The Danger of Nuclear WarAfter the U.S. Midterm Elections

This is the edited transcript of the address by Richard H. Black to Panel 1, “Stopping the Doomsday Clock—The Common Good of the One Humanity,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 22 conference, “For World Peace—Stop the Danger of Nuclear War: Third Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World.”

Col. Black (ret.), who headed the Army’s Criminal Law division at the Pentagon for many years, also served in the Virginia State Senate from 2012-2020. He is widely known internationally for his courageous denunciation of the danger of nuclear war, and of the genocidal wars waged by the United States over recent decades. The full proceedings of the conference are available at the Schiller Institute website.

The U.S. and NATO are on a nuclear razor’s edge. Article Five of the diabolical NATO Charter says that an attack on one member is an attack on all 30 nations of NATO. World War III, perhaps thermonuclear war, rests today on a hair trigger. NATO comprises 950 million people with a defense budget 20 times Russia’s. A single miscalculation can send a billion people off to war and precipitate a global nuclear bloodbath.

On November 17, the Washington Post carried this ominous headline: “How an Anonymous Source Raised False Alarm of Russian Strike on Poland.” The article led off by saying, “The Associated Press sent a terrifying news alert around the world on Tuesday” [Nov. 15]. These are the Washington Post’s words: “a terrifying news alert around the world on Tuesday.” At 2:00 p.m. the Associated Press wrote, “A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.” The news agency noted the Polish government had “top leaders … holding an emergency meeting due to a ‘crisis situation.’”

By the time that the AP took down its initial report, that report had been viewed by thousands of news outlets across the globe and many of them published wild-eyed headlines based on the erroneous article.

Because the errant missile had exploded just inside its border, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau summoned the Russian Ambassador “demanding immediate detailed explanations.” Ukraine’s President Zelensky hysterically accused Russia of bombarding Poland, though he must have known at that very moment that a Ukrainian missile had actually caused the blast—not a Russian one. Alone among nations, Ukraine still denies that it fired the missile and blames it on Russia.

The anonymous intelligence assessment that blamed Moscow triggered immediate demands for a no-fly zone—the Ukrainian holy grail that would embroil American jets in dogfights with Russian pilots and cause us to launch bomb strikes against Russian air defense batteries. World War III would be the almost inevitable result of a no-fly zone. The Independent reported from London: “Biden Convenes ‘Emergency’ G7 and NATO Meeting after Russian-Made Rockets Strike Poland.” The President was awakened after midnight to news of the missile explosion. He went on Twitter, promising and reaffirming America’s ironclad commitment to NATO.

Now, in the excitement and panic of the moment, world media repeated the false Associated Press claims. Fox News cited a “senior U.S. official” and “reports on the ground” that a “Russian missile” had hit Poland. CNN reported that a “Russian-made missile” was responsible for the blasts and the Daily Mail wrote: “‘Russian Bombs’ Kill Two in POLAND.”

The senior U.S. intelligence official cited by Associated Press (AP) claimed that multiple Russian missiles had crossed into Poland, but even Poland’s official statement said there was just a single missile. Why would U.S. intelligence purposefully exaggerate the facts? Why would top NATO officials be called into an emergency nighttime meeting to respond to an obvious missile malfunction, regardless of whether it came from Russia or Ukraine? Does any sentient person imagine that Russians would choose to attack Poland with a single missile, by targeting an old grain silo in a tiny farm village of 500 people? Will some event so trivial, become the eventual tripwire for global nuclear conflict?

NATO Primed for War

This incident proves that NATO is fully primed for a 1914 moment—when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife sparked a war that killed 18 million Europeans and led to World War II, which killed another 50 million. The next war that we face could kill billions of men, women, and children, ending civilization as we know it. Is an explosion that kills two farmers and destroys a grain silo worth all of that?

Now, we can have peace in Ukraine and draw back from World War III, whenever we choose to do so. But so far, the U.S. and UK have repeatedly blocked peace talks to end the hostilities.

Back in 2014, the Minsk Peace Accords were signed, ending Ukraine’s war against the Donbass. However, America flooded Ukraine with a huge weapons buildup, and incentivized Ukraine’s new revolutionary junta to renege on its promises and continue the bloody war against the Russian-speaking border regions that had declared independence. America blocked peace from taking hold.

Again, in April 2022, just two months after Russia entered the war on the side of Donbass, Ukrainian President Zelensky sent a five-page peace proposal to Russia. Russia found the proposal to be an acceptable framework for ending the fighting. President Putin backed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and the sides had almost arrived at a satisfactory resolution of hostilities. The Ukrainian peace negotiator, David Arakhamia, even told Ukrainian television that—and this is a quote—“The Russian Federation has given an official answer to all positions, which is, that they [are willing to] accept the [Ukrainian] position, except for the issue of Crimea.”

But as the peace talks were proceeding smoothly, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unexpectedly flew to Kiev and blocked them from going further. He could never have done this without White House approval. Now, at that very early stage in the war, casualties were relatively light and property damage was quite limited. Undoubtedly 100,000 lives could have been saved, if the United States had been willing to allow peace to emerge, a peace agreed to by the two parties to the war. The only reason the war continued, is that the U.S. and UK ordered Ukraine to fight on.

Now, again, just recently, on Nov. 9, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the Economics Club of New York that a victory by Ukraine may not be achieved militarily. He said that winter could provide an opportunity to begin negotiations with Russia. However, the Administration was shocked by Milley’s discussion of peace, and they went into damage control, assuring Ukraine that the pause in winter fighting was no reason to discuss peace, and that Washington looks forward to supporting Ukraine’s next advances and its future bloodshed on the battlefield. Once again, the U.S. has blocked peace and promoted death and destruction.

In 2014, the CIA and British MI6 helped overthrow the legitimate government of Ukraine and install a revolutionary junta. This is what began the current war in Ukraine. It wasn’t started by Russia; it was started in 2014 by the CIA and British MI6. The junta which took over launched a campaign of hate-filled de-Russification that inspired independence movements in the Donbass republics, Donetsk and Lugansk, where people’s language, their culture, their job security, and literally, their physical safety were threatened, by the revolutionary junta put in place by the United States and Great Britain, by overthrowing the elected government of Ukraine in 2014.

Throughout the years, Russia has patiently and consistently sought peaceful resolutions to the conflict. The U.S., UK, and NATO have blocked all these peace overtures, and doggedly pursued the path of war, bloodshed, and destruction.

The U.S. and NATO have violently opposed democratic self-determination for the Russian-speaking peoples of the Donbass along the border of Russia. When Elon Musk proposed UN-supervised elections to determine whether Russian-speaking regions would join Russia or return to Ukraine, Zelensky was furious; he knows that given a choice, the people of those regions would, once again, vote overwhelmingly to join Russia.

Americans must come to understand that it is our government, and not Russia, that insists on continuing the war. We must come to grips with the mortal danger that the Ukraine War and our NATO alliances pose for the U.S. and for the world.

Thank you.