{"id":233570,"date":"2023-04-17T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=233570"},"modified":"2023-04-17T12:24:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T11:24:31","slug":"united-states-kicks-off-nuclear-war-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/united-states-kicks-off-nuclear-war-games\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Kicks Off Nuclear War Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_233572\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/us-airforce-war.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-233572\" class=\"wp-image-233572\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/us-airforce-war.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/us-airforce-war.webp 1000w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/us-airforce-war-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/us-airforce-war-768x512.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-233572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A B-52H Stratofortress takes off during Global Thunder 19<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>12 Apr 2023 &#8211; <\/em>The Pentagon is set to begin a round of drills simulating a nuclear war, according to a Defense Department <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stratcom.mil\/Media\/News\/News-Article-View\/Article\/3356644\/us-strategic-command-commences-annual-nuclear-command-and-control-exercise\/\" >press release<\/a>. The war games come as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warns a civilization-ending war is closer than at any time in history.<\/p>\n<p>The military exercises, dubbed <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/US_STRATCOM\/status\/1645454120503877636\" >Global Thunder 23<\/a>, will be conducted by Strategic Command (STRATCOM). American soldiers and bombers will be joined by allies in the war games. The STRATCOM press release said this year\u2019s drills \u201cwill include an increase in bomber aircraft flights throughout the exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Global Thunder is an annual war game. The exercises are typically conducted at the end of the year. Last year, the Pentagon <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/premium\/2023-01\/nuclear-notebook-united-states-nuclear-weapons-2023\/\" >delayed Global Thunder<\/a> until early 2023. Making this year\u2019s iteration of Global Thunder <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtracey\/status\/1646222465050243074\" >the first<\/a> since Russia invaded Ukraine. During <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stratcom.mil\/Media\/News\/News-Article-View\/Article\/2828894\/us-strategic-command-commences-annual-nuclear-readiness-exerciseglobal-thunder\/\" >Global Thunder 22<\/a>, held in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/world\/articles\/2021-11-23\/russia-notes-significant-increase-in-u-s-bomber-activity-in-east-minister\" >November 2021<\/a>, US strategic bombers flew within 12.4 miles of the Russian border and simulated a nuclear attack.<\/p>\n<p>STRATCOM maintains the war games are \u201cnot in response to actions by any nation or other actors,\u201d but are rather intended to \u201cenhance nuclear readiness and ensure a safe, secure, and reliable strategic deterrence force.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, an American military officer said in 2019 that training missions in Europe could be <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/318796\/bomber-task-force-europe-showcases-future-strategic-deterrence\" >used to drop bombs<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s no longer just to go partner with our NATO allies, or to go over and have a visible presence of American air power,\u201d said Col. Michael Miller, 2nd Bomb Wing commander. \u201cThat\u2019s part of it, but we are also there to drop weapons if called to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has warned that the proxy war between Washington and Moscow is pushing the world toward a nuclear conflict. \u201cWe are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. 90 seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it\u2019s a decision our experts do not take lightly,\u201d BAS president and CEO Rachel Bronson <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/libertarianinstitute.org\/news\/doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-to-midnight-largely-due-to-war-in-ukraine\/\" >said in January<\/a>. \u201cThe US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Kyle_Anzalone.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-233571 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Kyle_Anzalone-e1681537315168.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"90\" height=\"91\" \/><\/a>Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the<\/em> Libertarian Institute, <em>opinion editor of<\/em> Antiwar.com <em>and co-host of<\/em> Conflicts of Interest <em>with<\/em> <em>Will Porter and Connor Freeman<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/libertarianinstitute.org\/news\/us-kicks-off-nuclear-war-games\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; libertarianinstitute.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12 Apr 2023 &#8211; The Pentagon is set to begin drills simulating a nuclear war, according to the Defense Department. The war games come as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warns a civilization-ending war is closer than at any time in history. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":233572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[853,1812,2670,1126,1050,1476,1361,1301,450,2298,112,2159,70,1594,2534],"class_list":["post-233570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","tag-atomic-weapons","tag-bulletin-atomic-scientists","tag-exceptionalism","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-nuclear-abolition","tag-nuclear-disaster","tag-nuclear-war","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-nuclear-weapons-illegal","tag-pentagon","tag-rogue-states","tag-usa","tag-war-economy","tag-wwiii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233573,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233570\/revisions\/233573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}