On the Verge of Nuclear War—Can World Citizens Silence the Guns of August?

NOTE: Today’s Manhattan Town Hall meeting has been prerecorded. There will be no live showing of today’s show.

In today’s meeting of the Manhattan Town Hall program, Dennis Speed and Harley Schlanger discuss the importance surrounding the initiative of the Schiller Institute’s “Appeal to Pope Leo XIV to Organize a Global Leaders Summit to Address the Questions of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament,” which was issued on Aug. 19 and has already gathered many signatures from important political, religious, and social leaders from around the world.

The appeal is made to the Pope, “as the leader who has made the greatest effort to speak for humanity as a whole, instead of for specific nations, religions, or constituencies, to call for an emergency international summit to guide the world away from the current path of war and potential nuclear disaster and to peacefully resolve the greatest crises facing humanity today.”

The danger of a world war, initiated by the deliberate/or accidental use of thermonuclear weapons, is immense. The danger comes not only from the discussion within the Trump Administration of tactical nuclear weapons as “strategic options,” as mooted by Undersecretary for Policy in the War Department Elbridge Colby this month. The discussion of a general war between NATO forces in Europe and Russia is now morphing into reality, with direct military engagements targeting supposedly Russian drones over Europe twice in less than a week.

In response to these engagements by NATO forces, the Russian Foreign Ministry has identified reports of comments from the UK Ministry of Defense, that supposedly they are demonstrating with these drone attacks, that they are not worried anymore about Russia’s possible reaction. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “I feel sorry for Britain, if it is going to be with Ukraine to the very end.

“As for the essence of our Embassy’s commentary, it means just one thing: President of Russia Putin has warned that we have the right to act in any part of the World Ocean, if someone infringes our interests, our property. We likewise have the right to view the proudly announced direct participation of British missile forces in strikes against the Russian Federation as participation in the war, with all the consequences that follow”

This warning should be crystal clear to the lemmings of the NATO military establishment, although it may fall on deaf ears. It should be undeniably clear to us, and serve as a warning for how dangerous the current situation is, and what we need to do now to amplify our voices to prevent the unthinkable. The open appeal to Pope Leo XIV serves the function of being a vehicle which you, a citizen, can use to silence the Guns of August.