by Brett Wilkins
October 17, 2022
Introduction:
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... exercises(Common Dreams) As NATO on Monday began its annual rehearsal for nuclear war in Europe and Russia prepared to conduct its own nuclear drill amid Cold War-like tensions inflamed by the invasion of Ukraine, peace advocates underscored the imperative for de-escalation in order to avert catastrophe.
"All nuclear exercises imply willingness to mass murder civilians, wipe out entire cities, and risk all-out nuclear war," the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) warned ahead of the NATO drill. "They also risk accidents and escalation, and will legitimize Russia's dangerous nuclear rhetoric."
NATO said the exercise—operation name Steadfast Noon—involves up to 60 warplanes from 14 members of the alliance, and is being carried out from Kleine Brogel air base in northeastern Belgium.
The U.S. military stockpiles dozens of B61-12 tactical nuclear warheads at Kleine Brogel, each up to 30 times as powerful as the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, killing over 100,000 people.