M.A.D.: The Nuclear Debate America Should be Having

Click here to access article by Adeyinka Makinde from his blog.

Makinde reviews the extensive history of the 20th century's Cold War and the current continuing development of Cold War 2.0 in the 21st century which he sees as more dangerous. Whereas the earlier version was prevented from developing into a nuclear conflagration because of a militant peace movement and leaders like John F. Kennedy, nowadays both seem to be missing. 

Unlike during the Cold War, there are no large, vocal anti-nuclear campaign groups organising demonstrations and making public appeals. While there is a press, the American mainstream media has failed to put these issues squarely into the public domain. The coverage of dangerous Russo-American confrontations such as Ukraine and Syria which ultimately should bring the wider issue of nuclear strategy to the fore is edited, biased and highly compartmentalized. Among America’s political leadership there is silence and incoherence. This state of affairs has resulted in a misdirected discourse and a cruelly misinformed public.

It is a debate which America continues to bypass at its own peril.

I think that Prof. James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya back in 2012 offer the best explanation that I can find for this phenomenon in an article entitled "The Rise of the Police State and the Absence of Mass Opposition".

The key to the police state operations of the US in the 21st century is to repress pro-democracy citizens and pre-empt any mass movement without undermining the electoral system, which provides political theater and legitimacy.  A police state ‘boundary’ is constructed to ensure that citizens will have little option but to vote for the two pro-police state parties, legislatures and executives without reference to the conduct, conditions and demands of the core, inner and outer circle of victims, critics and activists.  Frequent raids, harsh public ‘exemplary’ punishment and mass media stigmatization transmit a message to the passive mass of voters and non-voters that the victims of repression ‘must have been doing something wrong’ or else they would not be under police state repression.

The key to the police state strategy is to not allow its critics to gain a mass base, popular legitimacy or public acceptance. 

Also you might be interested to see in the following video how Adeyinka Makinde argues that "NATO is a private club of war criminals".