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valign="top"> <strong><span
style="font-size:20px"><span
style="color:#ba2025"><span
style="font-family:lato,helvetica neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">With
Clenched Fists, They
Spend Money on Weapons
as the Planet Burns: The
Eighteenth Newsletter
(2022)</span></span></span></strong>
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<span
style="font-family:lato,helvetica
neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">
<div id="attachment_59247"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59247"
class="wp-image-59247
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Dia-Al-Azzawi-Iraq-Sabra-and-Shatila-Massacre-1982-83..jpg"
alt="Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq),
Sabra and Shatila
Massacre, 1982–83."
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Dia-Al-Azzawi-Iraq-Sabra-and-Shatila-Massacre-1982-83..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Dia-Al-Azzawi-Iraq-Sabra-and-Shatila-Massacre-1982-83.-300x123.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Dia-Al-Azzawi-Iraq-Sabra-and-Shatila-Massacre-1982-83.-768x314.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-59247"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Dia
Al-Azzawi (Iraq), <i>Sabra
and Shatila Massacre</i>,
1982–83.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=fc6411240c&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Two
important reports were
released last month, neither
getting the kind of
attention they deserve. On 4
April, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change’s
Working Group III <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f4d30e41db&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">report</a>
was published, evoking a
strong reaction from the
United Nations’ Secretary
General António Guterres.
The report, he <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=bd6bec89a7&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>,
‘is a litany of broken
climate promises. It is a
file of shame, cataloguing
the empty pledges that put
us firmly on track towards
an unliveable world’. At
COP26, the developed
countries <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=e0ef8d2bd1&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">pledged</a>
to spend a modest $100
billion for the Adaptation
Fund to assist developing
countries adapt to climate
change. Meanwhile, on 25
April, the Stockholm
International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI) issued its
annual <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=0ad2753fc8&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">report</a>,
finding that the world
military spending surpassed
$2 trillion in 2021, the
first time it has exceeded
the $2 trillion mark. The
five largest spenders – the
United States, China, India,
the United Kingdom, and
Russia – accounted for 62
percent of this amount; the
United States, by itself,
accounts for 40 percent of
total arms expenditure.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">There
is an endless flow of money
for weapons but less than a
pittance to avert planetary
disaster.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_59257"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59257"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-59257
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Shahidul-Alam-Bangladesh-Wading-down-a-street-near-Kamlapur-railway-station-1988..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Shahidul-Alam-Bangladesh-Wading-down-a-street-near-Kamlapur-railway-station-1988..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Shahidul-Alam-Bangladesh-Wading-down-a-street-near-Kamlapur-railway-station-1988.-300x169.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Shahidul-Alam-Bangladesh-Wading-down-a-street-near-Kamlapur-railway-station-1988.-768x432.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-59257"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Shahidul
Alam/Drik/Majority World
(Bangladesh), The
resilience of the
average Bangladeshi is
remarkable. As this
woman waded through the
flood waters in
Kamalapur to get to
work, there was a
photographic studio
‘Dreamland
Photographers’, which
was open for business,
1988.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">That
word ‘disaster’ is not an
exaggeration. UN Secretary
General Guterres has warned
that ‘we are on a fast track
to climate disaster… It is
time to stop burning our
planet’. These words are
based on the facts contained
in the Working Group III
report. It is now firmly
established in the
scientific record that the
historical responsibility
for the devastation done to
our environment and our
climate rests with the most
powerful states, led by the
United States. There is
little debate about this
responsibility in the
distant past, a consequence
of the ruthless war against
nature carried out by the
forces of capitalism and
colonialism.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">But
this responsibility also
extends to our present
period. On 1 April, a new
study was <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d8f72a376e&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">published</a>
in <i>The Lancet Planetary
Health</i> demonstrating
that from 1970 to 2017
‘high-income nations are
responsible for 74 percent
of global excess material
use, driven primarily by the
USA (27 percent) and the
EU-28 high-income countries
(25 percent)’. The excess
material use in the North
Atlantic countries is due to
use of abiotic resources
(fossil fuels, metals, and
non-metallic minerals).
China is responsible for 15
percent of global excess
material use and the rest of
the Global South is
responsible for only 8
percent. The excess use in
these lower-income countries
is driven largely using
biotic resources (biomass).
This distinction between
abiotic and biotic resources
shows us that the excess
resources use from the
Global South is largely
renewable, whereas that of
the North Atlantic states is
non-renewable.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Such
an intervention should have
been on the front pages of
the newspapers of the world,
particularly in Global
South, and its findings
debated widely on television
channels. But it was barely
remarked upon. It proves
decisively that the
high-income countries of the
North Atlantic are
destroying the planet, that
they need to change their
ways, and that they need to
pay into the various
adaptation and mitigation
funds to assist countries
that are not creating the
problem but that are
suffering from its impact.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Having
presented the data, the
scholars who wrote this
paper note that ‘high-income
nations bear the
overwhelming responsibility
for global ecological
breakdown, and therefore owe
an ecological debt to the
rest of the world. These
nations need to take the
lead in making radical
reductions in their resource
use to avoid further
degradation, which will
likely require
transformative post-growth
and degrowth approaches’.
These are interesting
thoughts: ‘radical
reductions in resource use’
and then ‘post-growth and
degrowth approaches’.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_59267"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59267"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-59267
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Simon-Gende-Papua-New-Guinea-The-US-Army-find-Osama-bin-Laden-hiding-in-a-house-and-kill-him-2013..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Simon-Gende-Papua-New-Guinea-The-US-Army-find-Osama-bin-Laden-hiding-in-a-house-and-kill-him-2013..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Simon-Gende-Papua-New-Guinea-The-US-Army-find-Osama-bin-Laden-hiding-in-a-house-and-kill-him-2013.-300x213.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Simon-Gende-Papua-New-Guinea-The-US-Army-find-Osama-bin-Laden-hiding-in-a-house-and-kill-him-2013.-768x546.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-59267"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Simon
Gende (Papua New
Guinea), <i>The US Army
Find Osama bin Laden
Hiding in a House and
Kill Him</i>, 2013.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
North Atlantic states – led
by the United States – are
the largest spenders of
social wealth on arms. The
Pentagon – the US armed
forces – ‘remains the single
largest consumers of oil’, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a6499fabe2&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">says</a>
a Brown University study,
‘and as a result, one of the
world’s top greenhouse gas
emitters’. To get the United
States and its allies to
sign the Kyoto Protocol in
1997, the UN member states
had to <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=06b277169e&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">allow</a>
greenhouse gas emissions by
the military to be excluded
from the national reporting
on emissions.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
vulgarity of these matters
can be put plainly by
comparison of two money
values. First, in 2019, the
United Nations <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=06f40a79fc&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">calculated</a>
that the annual funding gap
to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)
amounted to $2.5 trillion.
Turning over the annual $2
trillion in global military
expenditure to the SDGs
would go a long way toward
dealing with the major
assaults on human dignity:
hunger, illiteracy,
houselessness, lack of
medical care, and so on. It
is important to note here,
that the $2 trillion figure
from SIPRI does not include
the lifetime waste of social
wealth given to private arms
manufacturers for weapons
systems. For example, the
Lockheed Martin F-35 weapons
system is projected to <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=599ede70ab&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">cost</a>
nearly $2 trillion.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
2021, the world spent over
$2 trillion on war, but only
<a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a1c0e8d059&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">invested</a>
– and this is a generous
calculation – $750 billion
in clean energy and energy
efficiency. Total <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=48154cf5b7&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">investment</a>
in energy infrastructure in
2021 was $1.9 trillion, but
the bulk of that investment
went to fossil fuels (oil,
natural gas, and coal). So,
investments in fossil fuels
continue and investments in
arms rise, while investments
to transition to new forms
of cleaner energy remain
insufficient.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_59277"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59277"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-59277
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Aline-Amaru-Tahiti-La-Famille-Pomare-1991..jpg"
alt="Aline Amaru (Tahiti),
La Famille Pomare (‘The
Pomare Family’), 1991. "
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Aline-Amaru-Tahiti-La-Famille-Pomare-1991..jpg
950w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Aline-Amaru-Tahiti-La-Famille-Pomare-1991.-300x285.jpg
300w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Aline-Amaru-Tahiti-La-Famille-Pomare-1991.-768x728.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-59277"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Aline
Amaru (Tahiti), <i>La
Famille Pomare </i>(‘The
Pomare Family’), 1991.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">On
28 April, US President Joe
Biden <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a9c1f64cde&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">asked</a>
the US Congress to provide
$33 billion for weapons
systems to be sent to
Ukraine. The call for these
funds comes alongside
incendiary statements made
by the US Defence Secretary
Lloyd Austin, who <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=dc84c2e434&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>
that the US is not trying to
remove Russian forces from
Ukraine but to ‘see Russia
weakened’. Austin’s comment
should not come as a
surprise. It mirrors US <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=2392a6ab23&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">policy</a>
since 2018, which has been
to prevent China and Russia
from <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=607a9afc8f&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">becoming</a>
‘near-peer rivals’. Human
rights are not the concern;
the focus is preventing any
challenge to US hegemony.
For that reason, social
wealth is wasted on weapons
and not used to address the
dilemmas of humanity.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_59287"
class="wp-caption
aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59287"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-59287
size-full img-responsive
mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Operation-Crossroads-Baker-atomic-test-Bikini-Atoll-Marshall-Islands-1946..jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Operation-Crossroads-Baker-atomic-test-Bikini-Atoll-Marshall-Islands-1946..jpg
906w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Operation-Crossroads-Baker-atomic-test-Bikini-Atoll-Marshall-Islands-1946.-286x300.jpg
286w,
https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Operation-Crossroads-Baker-atomic-test-Bikini-Atoll-Marshall-Islands-1946.-768x805.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width:
906px) 100vw, 906px"
style="max-width:
100%;width:
100%;padding-bottom:
0;display:
inline;vertical-align:
bottom;border: 0;height:
auto;outline:
none;text-decoration:
none;-ms-interpolation-mode:
bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="906" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-59287"
class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Shot
Baker atomic test under
Operation Crossroads,
Bikini Atoll (Marshall
Islands), 1946.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Consider
the way the United States
has reacted to a <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f285012c51&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">deal</a>
between Solomon Islands and
China, two neighbours.
Solomon Islands Prime
Minister Manasseh Sogavare <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=a7bb95fdde&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>
that this deal sought to
promote trade and
humanitarian cooperation,
not the militarisation of
the Pacific Ocean. On that
same day of Prime Minister
Sogavare’s address, a
high-level US delegation
arrived in the nation’s
capital Honiara. They <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=d2a69acc02&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">told</a>
Prime Minister Sogavare that
if the Chinese establish any
kind of ‘military
installation’, the United
States would ‘then have
significant concerns and
respond accordingly’. These
were plain threats. A few
days later, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Wang
Wenbin <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=f6edf82138&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">said</a>,
‘Island countries in the
South Pacific are
independent and sovereign
states, not a backyard of
the US or Australia. Their
attempt to revive the Monroe
Doctrine in the South
Pacific region will get no
support and lead to
nowhere’.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">The
Solomon Islands has a long
memory of the history of
Australian-British
colonialism and the scars of
the atom bomb tests. The
practice of ‘blackbirding’
abducted thousands of
Solomon Islanders to work
the sugarcane fields in
Queensland, Australia in the
19th century, eventually
leading to the Kwaio
Rebellion of 1927 in
Malaita. The Solomon Islands
has fought hard against
being militarised, <a
href="https://leftword.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=ce2728c8bf&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color:
#007C89;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration:
underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">voting</a>
in 2016 with the world to
prohibit nuclear weapons.
The appetite to be the
‘backyard’ of the United
States or Australia is not
there. That was clear in the
luminous poem ‘Peace Signs’
(1974) by Solomon Islands
writer Celestine Kulagoe:</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">A
mushroom sprouts from<br>
an arid pacific atoll<br>
Disintegrates into space<br>
Leaving only a residue of
might<br>
to which for an illusory<br>
peace and security<br>
man clings.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
the calm of the early
morning<br>
the third day after<br>
love found joy<br>
in the empty tomb<br>
the wooden cross of disgrace<br>
transformed into a symbol<br>
of love service<br>
peace.</p>
<p style="padding-left:
40px;margin: 10px 0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">In
the heat of the afternoon
lull<br>
the UN flag flutters<br>
hidden from sight by<br>
national banners<br>
under which<br>
sit men with clenched fists<br>
signing peace<br>
treaties.</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
<p style="margin: 10px
0;padding:
0;mso-line-height-rule:
exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family:
Helvetica;font-size:
16px;line-height:
150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
</span> </td>
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valign="top"
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<table
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