EDITORIAL

Use H.R. 10218 To Pull U.S. ATACMS Back from Ukraine Now

STRATCOM’s Adm. Buchanan Spills the Beans:
U.S. Preparing for Nuclear War!

Dec. 15—The following is the text of a leaflet released on Dec. 10 by The LaRouche Organization, for the broadest circulation possible, calling on citizens to demand that their congressional representatives support House Resolution 10218. This bill would prohibit the transfer of ATACMS missile systems to Ukraine as well as prohibit U.S. military and intelligence agencies from providing any support to Ukraine for using ATACMS to strike targets inside the Russian Federation.

It is urgent that the American people mobilize to urge Congress to immediately enact H.R. 10218, “To Prohibit the Transfer of Army Tactical Missile Systems to Ukraine (ATACMS) and for other Purposes,” introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), and now before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This is a matter of the utmost urgency, to turn the country from its current course of baiting Russia into nuclear brinkmanship and a possible U.S. pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Even if H.R. 10218 is not passed, it is important to strongly promote it, to prevent the escalation to nuclear war before, or after, Jan 20, since key circles in the military and foreign policy establishment clearly believe it is possible to wage and win a nuclear war—and they will still be there after Jan. 20!

Needless to say, any exchange of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia would lead to the probable extermination of human life on this planet, despite the fact that some circles in the U.S. military and foreign policy establishment, such as Rear Adm. Thomas Buchanan, Director of the Plans and Policy Directorate of the U.S. Strategic Command, are willing to contemplate their possible use.

Buchanan, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Nov. 20, stated that a nuclear exchange would be acceptable as long as the U.S. emerged with enough nuclear capability to hold post-war dominance: “I think everybody would agree if we have to have an exchange, then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States. So, it’s terms that are most acceptable to the United States that puts us in a position to continue to lead the world, right?”

Are members of Congress aware of these chilling comments by the Director of Plans and Policy of the U.S. Strategic Command, which are not obviously merely his personal views, but shared by others in the foreign policy and military establishment? That they mean the abandonment of the policy that “nuclear war cannot be won and therefore must not be fought”? But rather, “We must plan for nuclear war if that’s what it takes to maintain U.S. global dominance”?

Getting the American People
‘Nuclear War Ready’

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche is right to demand a national and international hue and cry be raised over the insanity in U.S. policy revealed by Rear Adm. Thomas R. “TR” Buchanan, Director of U.S. Strategic Command’s Plans and Policy Directorate, in addressing a Nov. 20 conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.—an old Kissinger haunt, back in the days when it was associated with Georgetown University. Buchanan, there, stated that the U.S. should be prepared to use nuclear weapons, if the global leadership role of the United States was at stake.

Buchanan used his keynote address to the CSIS conference to kick off—with the enthusiastic backing of his hosts from the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI)—a national debate on the proposition that “nuclear weapons use is no longer unimaginable,” as opposed to the still-official policy that “nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.” Such a debate is needed “to raise the nuclear IQ of not only our military leaders, but our policymakers, our leadership, Capitol Hill, and the public,” he proposed.

In introducing Buchanan, moderator Heather Williams, the Director of the PONI project and a consultant to STRATCOM’s Strategic Advisory Group, reported that a theme of discussions in earlier panels that morning was that “nuclear weapons use is no longer not imaginable.” Williams, who participated actively with Buchanan in the discussion to get Americans to “think the unthinkable,” has extensive links into British policy-making circles: She was an advisor to the House of Lords and is an associate fellow at London’s oldest imperial think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), as well as being an associate professor at King’s College London, where she also received her PhD from the Department of War Studies.

In his prepared speech and discussion with Williams which followed, Buchanan admitted that “technically” the U.S. is not at war with adversaries Russia, China, Iran or North Korea. Congress hasn’t declared war, but we are in a strategic environment in which “we need to be ready. And by ready, I mean our services need to be ready,” he argued. Buchanan urged PONI and other policymakers to strategize on what “types of things that resonate with the American people” could help them understand why STRATCOM must prepare for the use of nuclear weapons. He asked: What are we “missing in terms of capturing the nation’s attention?… Is it because the talk of nuclear weapons is verboten? Is it because we don’t want to consider the possible outcomes? Is it because … we don’t want to think about it?”

Why must Americans think about this? Asked to define what it means to discuss “winning” a nuclear war, Buchanan demurred that we would not want to have a nuclear exchange, but:

I think everybody would agree [that] if we have to have an exchange, then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States … terms … that put us in a position to continue to lead the world, right? So we’re largely viewed as the world leader.

And do we lead the world in an area where we’ve considered [to have a] loss? The answer is no, right? And so it would be to a point where … we’d have to have sufficient capability. We’d have to have reserve capacity. You wouldn’t expend all of your resources to gain winning, right? Because then you have nothing to deter from at that point. So, a very complex problem.

Weapons producer Northrop Grumman Corp. kindly paid for this discussion.

On Dec. 9, Helga Zepp-LaRouche emphasized: “Buchanan’s statement is, in its enormity, so unbelievable that you would really think that this should have been the number-one news item all over the world. But it was completely covered up. No Western media found it worth discussing. No politician in the West thought it was necessary to comment on. I think that that is so unbelievable, because in all aspects, it is a violation of the Nuremberg Code: that you cannot prepare a war of aggression, and for sure not one with nuclear weapons, which means the end of all life on the planet if it comes to that.

Zepp-LaRouche and Scott Ritter, former U.S. Marine and UN weapons inspector, have called for a maximum citizens’ mobilization to repudiate this criminal thinking, worthy of the dock at Nuremberg. Call your members of Congress now, at (202) 225-3121! Tell them to back H.R. 10218 now! And tell them to stay on the case beyond this session of Congress, in whatever actions are needed to pull the U.S. out of its present course to nuclear war.

H.R.10218—
To Prohibit the Transfer of Army Tactical Missile Systems
to Ukraine, and for Other Purposes

Dec. 15—Below is the full text of H.R. 10218, introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) on Nov. 21, 2024, to the 118th Congress, 2nd Session, of the United States House of Representatives.

H.R. 10218

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

November 21, 2024

Mr. Higgins of Louisiana introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

A BILL

To prohibit the transfer of Army Tactical Missile Systems to Ukraine, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. Prohibition on transfer of army tactical missile systems to ukraine.

(a) Prohibition.—For the period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act and ending at the close of January 20, 2025, notwithstanding any other provision of law, during any period for which a state of conflict exists between Ukraine and the Russian Federation—

(1) no Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) may be transferred to Ukraine; and

(2) U.S. Military Services or intelligence agencies may not provide support to Ukrainian units operating High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HMARS) platforms utilizing ATACMS munitions to strike outside of internationally recognized Ukrainian territorial borders—

(A) targeting intelligence support;

(B) mission planning support; and

(C) any other type of support.