Daniel Ellsberg: Yes. Very much so. The very fact that our NATO commitment involved a continuous first use threat. A threat of initiating nuclear war was not in the awareness of most Americans from beginning to end of the Cold War. They really, a majority actually of Americans, said in poll that they did not think it was protecting West Europe from an invasion would justify initiating nuclear war, but they were not aware that that was the very basis of our commitment and always has been and still is to this day. Now, West Germany or Germany now is not in any tangible danger from Russia at this point of invasion.
Daniel Ellsberg: Now we get to an important issue. 122 nations have signed now, although I forget how many, but maybe 20 more, have actually ratified a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. And to make illegal any possession of any nuclear weapons. The Pope speaking, not legally but morally, has said now, in contrast to his predecessors, that any possession of nuclear weapons is morally condemnable. Now similar to the ban idea. Unfortunately, and predictably, all of those 122 nations are nations that do no possess nuclear weapons. And they are not allied to nations that protect them with the threat of nuclear weapons. So not one member of NATO has signed such a treaty. Nor has any member of the nine nuclear weapon states. Actually one member of NATO did take part in the negotiations, only one. [crosstalk 01:24:40]
Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation download
Continued corruption of the information ecosphere on which democracy and public decision making depend has heightened the nuclear and climate threats. In the last year, many governments used cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns to sow distrust in institutions and among nations, undermining domestic and international efforts to foster peace and protect the planet.
The world is sleepwalking its way through a newly unstable nuclear landscape. The arms control boundaries that have helped prevent nuclear catastrophe for the last half century are being steadily dismantled.
The most likely scenario is that in order to stop Ukraine from retaking any Russian occupied territory in the east and pose any potential threat to Crimea, Russia may well use a small (1 to 2 kilo tonne) tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
In response to the growing crisis and threats, Russian President Putin declared on December 9, in a press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan that Russia will reconsider its current nuclear doctrine of using nuclear weapons only if attacked first with nuclear weapons by another party, or if the existence of the Russian state itself is threatened. Putin said Russia was now considering responding to the U.S. doctrine of preemptive first strike by having to adopt the same first strike policy. That means we are one step away from a thermonuclear catastrophe.
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