The End of a Dream?
The dream of disarmament is over. It is time to wake up to reality, so that we don’t end up living in a nightmare. Now we need to dream of peace.
Nearly three years ago I withdrew from the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally scheduled to take place on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, DC. I had written a speech that I called “the best speech I never delivered”, in which addressed the myriad of issues which confronted we, the American people, as we struggled to form a more perfect union.
Let me share the final passages of that speech as an introduction to what I will be writing about in this essay:
Some 60 years ago, on these very steps, in this very place, a man of peace gave a speech that captured the imagination of the nation and the world, searing into our collective hearts and minds the words, ‘I have a dream.’
Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic address confronted America’s sordid history of slavery, and the inhumanity and injustice of racial segregation. In it, he dreamed “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
All men are created equal.
These words resonated in the context of America’s desperate internal struggle with the legacy of slavery and racial injustice.
But these words apply equally, especially when taken in the context that we are all God’s children, black, white, rich, poor.
American.
Russian.
You see, I too have a dream.
That the audience gathered here today can find a way to overcome the ignorance-based fears generated by the disease of Russophobia, to open our minds and our hearts to accept the Russian people as fellow human beings deserving of the same compassion and consideration as our fellow Americans—as all humankind.
I too have a dream.
That we the people of the United States of America, can unite in common cause with the Russian people to build bridges of peace that facilitate an exchange of ideas, open minds closed by the hate-filled rhetoric of Russophobia that is promulgated by the war machine and its allies, and allow the love we have for ourselves to manifest itself into love and respect for our fellow man.
Especially those who live in Russia.
Newton’s Third Law, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, applies to the human condition every bit as much as it applies to the physical world.
Love thy neighbor as thyself is applicable to all humanity.
I too have a dream.
That by overcoming the hate generated by systemic Russophobia we can work with our fellow human beings in Russia to create communities of compassion that, when united, make a world filled with nuclear weapons undesirable, and policies built on the principles of mutually beneficial arms control second nature.
I too have a dream.
That one day, whether on the red hills of Georgia, or the black soil of the Kuban, the sons and daughters of the men and women who today operate the Russian and American nuclear arsenals will be able to quote Dr. King, “to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
This is not an impossible dream.
I have lived it. I once was corrupted by the hatred that comes from fear generated by the ignorance about the reality of those whom I was trained to kill.
But I then embarked on a remarkable journey of discovery, facilitated by the implementation of the very same intermediate nuclear forces treaty that ended up saving humanity from nuclear annihilation, where I came to know the Russian people not as enemy, but as friend. Not as opponent, but colleague. As fellow humans capable of the same emotions as myself, imbued with the same human desire to build a better world for themselves and their loved ones, a world free of the tyranny of nuclear weapons.
I too have a dream.
That the people gathered here today will join me on a new journey of discovery, one that tears down the walls of ignorance and fear constructed by the war machine, walls designed to separate us from our fellow human beings in Russia, and instead builds bridges that connect us to those we have been conditioned to hate, but now—for the sake of ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren—must learn to love.
This will not be an easy journey, but it is one worth taking.
This is my journey, your journey, our journey, where we will embark, literally, down the road less travelled.
And yes, it will the one that will make all the difference.
It will take us, as Dr. King once cried out from these very steps, to the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, the mighty mountains of New York, the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado, the curvaceous slopes of California…to every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
This is an American journey—a journey of Americans, united in the cause of peace and justice, and a world free from the tyranny of nuclear weapons. Our numbers will grow, from two thousand, to twenty thousand, from twenty thousand to a hundred thousand, and from a hundred thousand to a million or more.
And who knows? Maybe in June of 2024, on the anniversary of the 1982 gathering of a million people in New York City’s Central Park, where they rallied in favor of nuclear disarmament and an end to the nuclear arms race, we can come together and send a similar message to the war machine.
A million people or more demanding that their government act in a manner that preserves and protects the lives and future of all Americans—of all humanity.
The 1982 rally set in motion events that led to the implementation of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty in 1987—a treaty that literally saved the world from nuclear destruction.
I too have a dream.
That together, we can harness the same energy, the same vision, the same passion as those who have gone before us and create a movement of people united in the principles of peace that will lead to a future arms control agreement between the United States and Russia that will preserve our collective futures.
There will be forces that will try to disrupt us, to dissuade us—to destroy us.
We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated.
We must not go gently into that good night, but instead rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Rage, rage against the war machine.
Rage, rage so that together we may breathe life into the words of President Lincoln inscribed on the memorial behind me:
“…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Let us get to work.
Thank you.
Today I am confronted by the harsh reality that this dream of mind is just that—a dream.
Noble.
Uplifting.
Unfulfilled.
And, at this juncture, unfulfillable, especially when it comes to the critical issue of arms control.
I spoke about the importance of arms control in “the best speech I never gave”:
Arms control, however, is no longer part of the US-Russian dialogue. The American war machine has conspired to denigrate the notion of mutually beneficial disarmament in the minds of the American public, instead seeking to use arms control as a mechanism to achieve unilateral strategic advantage.
When an arms control treaty becomes inconvenient to the objective of American global domination, then the war machine simply quits. America’s record in this regard is damnable—the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, the open-skies treaty—all relegated to the trash bin of history in the cause of seeking unilateral advantage for the American war machine.
In a world without arms control, we will once again be confronted with a renewed arms race where each side develops weapons that protect nothing while threatening everything. Without arms control, we will return to a time where living on the edge of the abyss of imminent nuclear annihilation was the norm, not the exception.
Every word I wrote was the truth.
I had believed that there was a chance to breath new life into the spirit of nuclear disarmament, to motivate a movement of like-minded Americans who, through the sheer force of democratic will, would compel their elected representatives to do the right thing and re-embrace the precepts of human survival that serve as the foundation of arms control.
Our work was not futile—I am convinced that the processes initiated in early 2023 helped take us off a path that was inexorably leading to nuclear war between the US and Russia.
It was some of the most difficult and demanding work possible—work that put me on Ukrainian death lists paid for and organized by my own government and, having failed to kill me, resulted in the US government turning the full weight of the power of the state against me in the form of Department of Justice allegations that I was a Russian agent, allegations which resulted in the seizure of my passport and an FBI raid on my home.
No criminal charges were filed, for I had committed no crime, and, ultimately, I had my travel rights restored and the criminal investigation terminated.
The goal of the US government was to intimidate me and those around me from continuing the journey I had spoken of in my speech.
It didn’t work.
Armed with a new passport, I resumed my travels to Russia, singularly focused on reviving an appetite for arms control in both Russia and the United States.
I have been compelled to confront some very harsh realities.
First and foremost, there is currently zero appetite for meaningful arms control in the United States.
Zero.
I have been able to motivate well-meaning activists like myself to engage amongst ourselves in a serious dialogue about arms control in the hopes of being able to find some point of leverage or vector that could help sow the seeds of a future arms control agreement between Russia and the US that used the soon-to-expire New START treaty as the foundation upon which to build.
But for this to happen, two things needed to occur.
First, we needed an intellectual opening within the US government that could nourish such ideas and allow them to grow.
And second, we needed the Russian government to show a willingness and desire to help harvest such intellectual crops and bring them to market.
At this juncture I am forced to admit that there is no hope of any positive movement within the Trump administration for meaningful arms control with Russia. When a sitting American President openly admits that he doesn’t believe in international law, that he is governed solely by his own sense of morality, and then demonstrates that this notion of morality supports and sustains the illegal invasion of a sovereign state, the abduction of a sovereign leader, acts of piracy of the high seas, and the attempted murder of the leader of the nation possessing a nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the United States ten times over, then there is no hope.
Arms control treaties are the very manifestation of international law.
And when a President decides that it is a sound tactic to try and murder a Russian President, then one cannot responsibly talk about how to pressure Russia into relinquishing its nuclear arsenal.
I made three trips to Russia between August and November last year. The primary goal of these trips was to engage Russian leaders and influencers on the issue of nuclear disarmament and US-Russian arms control.
It became clear that the Russians had bought into a process that was premised on what was being called “the Spirit of Alaska”, the notion that the Anchorage Summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump has produced a common understanding on the need to better relations between the US and Russia which included the need for comprehensive arms control discussions.
The Russian government, having initiated this process, was loath to do anything outside the four corners of this process that might disrupt the process. As such, it prevented my from engaging in the very discussions I believed necessary to breath life into the concept of US-Russian arms control and blocked any meaningful public discussion on this issue.
But the critical factor was that the reticence of the Russian government to publicly engage on the issue of US-Russian disarmament wasn’t coming from a rejection of the concept, but rather the opposite: that the potential for US-Russian arms control existed but needed to be pursued in a more discreet manner.
It was in this light that I began working with colleagues in the US and Russia to best position ourselves to help maximize the potential of these discreet talks to succeed. During my November trip to Russia had had the privilege of meeting and speaking with the former Austrian Foreign Minister, Karen Kneissl, who today heads what she calls a “do tank” known as the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (GORKI) Center.
In discussions with Karen and the GORKI Center and Dennis Kucinich and the members of the Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative, we developed a plan for the GORKI Center to host a mock arms control negotiation from March 29-April 4. This negotiation would have involved two teams of graduate-level Russian students recruited from academic programs which lent themselves to the issue of arms control and disarmament.
The mock negotiations were to focus on the issues of missile defense and intermediate nuclear forces, all within the context of a New START treaty which has been given a new lease on life (either through extension or voluntary moratorium.) We opted to exclude New START as an issue for mock negotiation so as not to be seen as interfering in any ongoing dialogue between the US and Russia on this very issue.
The two graduate student teams were intended to play the part of Russian and US arms control negotiators. Each team have been advised/mentored by a group of subject matter experts drawn from Russia and the US. The Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative team of experts, me included, were to serve in the role of US experts.
Our goal was to use the Gorki mock negotiation as a model for a similar exercise to be held in the United States this coming summer.
In this, we all believed we were on to something—a chance for the next generation to set the example to the current generation about how difficult questions of national importance could be addressed, and solutions found, through interactive processes built on mutual respect and trust.
We believed we had found a mechanism to help heal the damage that had been done to both of our nations by decades of distrust and betrayal—almost exclusively on the part of the United States.
Unfortunately, this dream cannot be realized at this time.
On the night of December 28, Ukraine launched an attack using 91 drones which targeted the state residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the northwestern Novgorod region at a time when Putin was in direct talks with Preisent Trump about negotiations to bring about an end the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, noted about this attack, “Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kiev regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised.”
The attempted assassination of Vladimir Putin was denied by the US government. Interestingly enough, the CIA undertook a massive public relations campaign seemingly times to coincide with the attempted assassination, collaborating with the New York Times on a story which had the CIA admitting that it was the brains behind the Ukrainian drone and cruise missile attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
The same intelligence and technology used to target Russian energy infrastructure was used to target President Putin.
At first the CIA denied that such an attack took place. Later they modified their stance to acknowledge that there was a major Ukrainian drone attack, but that the target wasn’t Putin’s residence, but rather a nearby military facility.
President Trump, who initially expressed “shock” upon hearing the news from President Putin about the attack, later reversed course, and claimed the Russians were lying.
In addition to publishing photographs and maps showing the radar tracks of the incoming Ukrainian drones, Russia recovered sophisticated electronic chips used to guide the drones to their target. The Russian intelligence service turned over one example of such a chip to US military officers in Moscow, informing them that the data contained would show without any question that the intended target was President Putin’s residence.
The attempt on President Putin’s life was followed up by the brazen kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US Special Operations forces, in total violation of and disregard for international law. The abduction was followed by the US boarding and seizing shipping, including one tanker that had been reflagged as a Russian vessel, in what can only be described as a modern act of piracy.
President Trump has since then gone on record saying that President Putin fears him, and that he does not be live that a US operation to kidnap President Putin is needed “at this time.”
Russia has always maintained that its strategic nuclear forces are intended to ensure the survival of the nation.
In short, at a time when a US President has attempted, through proxy, to assassinate the President of Russia, undertakes further actions designed to generate fear inside Russia, and threatens the possibility of operations to kidnap President Putin in the future, it is impossible of conceiving a scenario where Russia is willing to sit down with the US at a negotiating table, and further, if such negotiations were to take place, that Russia would be willing to put on the table policy options which would weaken the one thing that holds the US at bay: Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces.
Russia had previously opened the door for the continuation of nuclear arms control talks, inclusive of extending the provisions of the soon to be defunct New START treaty for a years’ time. But the US has failed to engage, instead undertaking efforts to undermine Russian security and eliminate its leadership.
Two days ago, Russia fired an Oreshnik missile against targets in the vicinity of the western Ukrainian city of Lvov.
Russia indicated that this attack was a direct response to the drone attack on President Putin.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, currently the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, has posted on social media that the Oreshnik missile is now a formal part of Russia’s strategic deterrence.
This is a game changer.
A key aspect of any future strategic arms control treaty is the extent to which the US and Russia could contain and/or eliminate the destabilizing aspects of both intermediate range missiles and strategic missile defense.
By firing the Oreshnik a second time, Russia has made it clear that it views the Oreshnik—an intermediate range missile—to be a critical, integral part of its strategic nuclear forces.
Combine this fact with President Trump’s recently announced defense budget, which has gown from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. The bulk of the new spending is related to funding programs like Trump’s envisioned “Golden Dome” missile defense shield.
Arms control is dead, and it is uncertain whether it can be revived.
So, what does one do when confronted with such sobering reality?
I again draw upon the “best speech I never gave” for inspiration:
The key to sustaining this inherently un-American mechanism [note: one where we the people are excluded from every consideration, whether it be funding or consequence, related to our collective defense] is the ability of the military-industrial-congressional complex—the war machine—to generate fear amongst the American people derived from ignorance of the true nature of the threat or threats these nuclear weapons are designed to address.
In the case of US-Russian relations, this fear is produced by systemic Russophobia imposed on the American public by a war machine and its compliant minions in the mainstream media. Left to its own device, the collusion between government and media will only further reinforce ignorance-based fear through a process of dehumanizing Russia and the Russian people in the eyes of the American public, until we have become desensitized to the lies and distortions, accepting at face value anything negative said about Russia.
I’m going back to the basics, returning to my roots. In April 2023 I embarked on my first visit to Russia in more than 30 years. This visit opened my eyes to the reality of Russia, and the importance of understanding this reality when it came to defeating the Russophobia that has infected the American people.
I began a campaign I called “Waging Peace.”
While I later expanded the “waging peace” effort to take on a heavy arms control flavor, at its heart the effort was always a journey of discovery—to discover the Russian Soul and bring it back to the United States.
This past November I travelled to Russia in order to explore opportunities to make arms control a leading policy option regarding US-Russian relations.
This effort has been a failure, through no lack or trying or fault of my own.
But one must be brutally honest at times like these.
We will enter a new nuclear arms race with Russia.
This arms race could very well trigger circumstance that result in a human termination event—global nuclear war.
The only chance we have of avoiding such an outcome now is to try and get the American public to understand that the Russian people and Russian nation are not an existential threat to the survival of the United States.
That nuclear war is not an option.
This task will be made more difficult because of two new realities.
First, the “honeymoon” period of Donald Trump’s seeming willingness to normalize relations with Russia is coming to an end—if indeed it ever existed.
There is a real risk that the US will return to the tactics of demonization that had run rampant during the Biden administration, where any effort to address the reality of Russia will be viewed as a threat to US national security.
Second, the Russian willingness to engage with Americans such as myself can no longer be taken for granted. Many Russians view the prospects of better relations with the US as little more than a propaganda exercise designed to further the goals and objectives of a fifth column inside Russia designed to weaken Russia from within.
But these two new realities underscore the absolute importance of educating the American public about the Russian reality. Left to their own devices, these two new realities would work in concert to widen the gap between our two nations, sowing the seeds of fear that are born of ignorance, and—in the context of a new inevitable nuclear arms race—increase the possibility that from this ignorance a mistake, misjudgment or miscalculation may occur that leads to the use of a nuclear weapon.
Knowledge is power, and as such it is imperative that the American people be empowered to the degree possible about the Russian reality.
This is my mission.
In November I conducted a number of interviews as part of my podcast, The Russia House with Scott Ritter. These interviews provided deep insights into the reality of modern day Russia that cannot be found anywhere else.
I will be returning to Russia in March to continue this work. I am already coordinating with my producer, Alexandra Madornaya, and our Russian contacts to put together a program of work that will do justice to this mission.
Given the new “cold war” that is anticipated regarding any effort to counter the Russophobic policies of the US government, sustained as they are by the Russophobia endemic to American academia and mainstream media, any such effort will be attacked as being little more than an extension of official Russian State propaganda.
My last visit to Russia, in November, was conducted in a way that set the “gold standard” for journalistic independence and integrity. The entire program was crafted by me and my team based upon priorities that we set. Moreover, every expense was paid—travel, accommodations, meals—by us.
This was difficult—and expensive—but necessary in order to maintain genuine independence that could withstand the scrutiny of the US government.
I intend to conduct myself in strict adherence to this “gold standard” of journalistic independence and integrity during my March visit, and every visit to Russia going forward. But to do this, I will need the assistance of those who deem the journalism I am conducting to be of value.
In short, this trip cannot take place without the generous donations of you, the intended audience for my work.
This article serves as an appeal for donations to keep the “Waging Peace” dream alive, and to help prevent the nightmare of nuclear war from occurring.
I can promise you that I will never betray the trust and confidence you place in me to deliver a quality product that informs you, the audience, in a unique fashion.
That I will dedicate myself to reporting that meets every standard of independent journalistic integrity and objectiveness.
Thank you in advance for your support.
I, too, have a dream.
Together we can help make it come true.
Beautifully written. I wish from your words and hope to Gods ears. We seem to be in the book "Animal Farm". We have bullies running our country with only money that counts. I can't believe how many people still have their trust in Trump and his administration. They put out the lies and hope they will stick and they do for some people. I am fearful of what will happen if we keep going the way we are. It is a wonderful sight though when so many people are still fighting the fight. I admire your courage and your passion, Scott. Like I have said before, you are an Earth Angel.
Stay safe.
big TQ for all the work you do! when people like yourself are willing and able to believe and act in favour of a much-needed better mutual understanding, we too can continue to hope for better solutions. violence is never a solution, let alone a sustainable policy.