Oppenheimer and the “forever” wars: Have we learnt nothing?
Aug 19, 2023For the first time since the US achieved global domination economically and militarily after WWII, the military industrial complex and Biden administration fear the rise of China. They have decided that it must be crushed. The US, NATO and its compliant states have whipped up a frenzy of fear and loathing for the Chinese. This has resulted in trillions of dollars in a global rearmament on a colossal scale. The Australian government, without the approval of parliament or the people have handed over sovereignty to the US to operate their war from its bases in states all around the country. The first nation to be “captured” by “the Rulers of the World” is Australia.
By accident or design the making of the movie “Oppenheimer” comes at a time when the world is again in a state of “minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock”.
With the prospect of WWIII over America and NATO’s proxy war with Ukraine, Putin’s threats of “tactical” nuclear war, Biden’s paranoia over China and his often repeated statement “to defend Taiwan no matter what it takes”, the widespread wars in Africa not to mention the recent US CIA-staged coup in Peru….Nothing has been learned over the decades since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars with the outcome of “MAD”( mutually assured destruction) and the recent insane statement by the US Department of Defence, after 3 decades of inactivity, that “new” nuclear bombs are to be designed and built.
For the first time since the US achieved global domination economically and militarily after WWII, the MIC (military industrial complex) and Biden administration fear the rise of China. They have decided that it must be crushed. The US, NATO and its compliant states have whipped up a frenzy of fear and loathing for the Chinese. This has resulted in trillions of dollars in a global rearmament on a colossal scale. The Australian government, without the approval of parliament or the people have handed over sovereignty to the US to operate their war from its bases in states all around the country. The first nation to be “captured” by “the Rulers of the World” is Australia.
It is important to return to the story of Oppenheimer as it portends of what is to come. History is always written by the victors so the US Department of Defence, having worked with Hollywood filmmakers for nearly 100 years, have been able to give their input. As the Chief of Public Affairs of the DoD’s Film Liaison Department says “the goal is two-fold to accurately depict military stories and make sure sensitive information is not disclosed”. The blockbuster movie is in the same mold of its predecessors like Midway, Top Gun and the other endless war pics. What’s taken out and what’s left in is the problem.
When Einstein and others tipped off the US President that the Germans were suspected of developing an atomic bomb, the Administration and the DoD put together a team of hundreds of scientists and others to design and build a bomb under the management and direction of the Army. Issues like moral and ethical matters, safety and precautionary measures, exposure of military persons and other issues were overlooked. Several scientists refused to participate in what became known as the Trinity test. The DoD recruited a compliant, ambitious university professor J.R.Oppenheimer, called “the Father of the Atomic Bomb”, but not the inventor, to conduct the test. The explosion took place at Los Alamos and was observed in 3 separate locations each about 10kms away. Some observers had no eye or hearing protection and those downwind of the blast were exposed to fallout. The “Downwinders” as they were later called in the fallout areas many kilometres away in the towns, villages and farmlands bore the brunt of the radiation. A year after the detonation, infant mortality’s skyrocketed and cancers began to emerge. The Administration denied all responsibility. Only in the past month the US Congress voted in favour of granting compensation to the “Downwinders” and others irradiated in the over 1000 atomic tests undertaken in the Mississippi, the Nevada desert and the Pacific islanders on Guam.
The movie leaves out the obliteration of Nagasaki and Hiroshima of which there is extensive footage. Over 220,000 civilians were massacred. These “trial” sites were chosen specifically by the DoD because they had not been bombed or damaged in the war. These sites were thus able to provide detailed, measurable evidence of the effects of the two unique bombs.
The “Lie” left in the movie was that the bombs brought an early end to the war. What was not told was that Stalin had stated Russia’s invasion of Japan was ready, that Japan was losing ground in China which it had failed to conquer, that the Japanese airforce and navy had already been destroyed by the US Fleet in the Pacific and on the mainland during bombing raids. It was not only the Japanese home bases wiped out, 76 of Japan’s largest cities were firebombed by the US using weapons banned under the Geneva Convention – Napalm (burns at 800 to 1200C) and Phosphorus (1000 to 2500C). Millions of wooden homes burned leaving unaccounted numbers of civilians homeless and without food, water and medical assistance. In one night raid on Tokyo, 100,000 civilians died and countless were left maimed.
Even the Allies condemned the unnecessary bombing. Winston Churchill said “it was a mistake to suppose the fall of Japan was settled by the bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell”. President Truman’s Chief of Staff, Admiral William Leahy, said that “Japan had already been defeated” and J.K.Galbraith, the US Official Investigator of the War said that he discovered that a decision to end the war agreed to by the Emperor was made by the Supreme Direction Council on June 20, 1945.
The unstated message of the film is that the development and use of the nuclear weapons led to the beginning of America’s “Rule of International Order” and the forever likelihood of the end of civilisation.