On the last day of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton, delegates unanimously adopted Resolution 497 which, among other belligerent assertions, emphasized “that only peace through strength can lead to lasting peace.” That is a fatally flawed and dangerous delusion. Peace through strength translates into the fallacy that “if you want peace, then prepare for war.” Preparation for war, which succinctly summarizes the overarching theme of the entire five-day Assembly, leads to war, not peace. NATO is not alone in that operational mobilization and development of war resources.

Plans are well underway to create a military-industrial-nuclear nexus in Ohio. With a massive AI weapons manufacturing plant (Anduril’s Arsenal One) south of Columbus, a modernized nuclear fuel facility (Centrus Energy’s low-enriched uranium plant) on the heavily contaminated grounds of the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, and use of Wright-Patterson airbase in Dayton (as well as Rickenbacker by Columbus) as a deployment hub for the newly developed weapons, this trinity of military sites is designed to convert Ohio into the heart of new nuclear military industrial complex.

Centrus’ Piketon plant delivered its first supply of enriched uranium (20 kilograms) to the Department of Energy in late 2023; by 2028, this private corporation largely funded by federal dollars plans to vastly expand operations to house hundreds of centrifuges capable of producing 6,000 kilograms of enriched uranium 235 annually for the US military. Extensive radioactive pollution near the Piketon facility caused a local school to close, and the cancer rates in Pike County are the highest in Ohio. In a deeply disturbing report filed in April 2025 under the heading of “Land of Leukemia and Lymphoma,” local residents filling the auditorium of Piketon High School were asked if they had a family member contract cancer, die of cancer, or if they knew someone in the area who did. Nearly all stood up. The fallout is destined to continue if uranium enrichment expansion in Piketon proceeds as planned.

Anduril, founded in 2017, has the stated mission of “transforming defense capabilities with advanced technology.” Its Project Thor, when and if fully operational, intends to put a whole new generation of sophisticated lethal drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles into mass production at Arsenal One, to be built in Pickaway County. Its founder, billionaire Palmer Luckey, who seems obsessed with war with China, claims to have chosen Ohio, instead of his native California, as the ideal production site due to its cooperative and compliant politicians. Though richly funded by right-wing billionaire and Trump disciple, Peter Thiel, as well as obscenely subsidized with $500 million from the State of Ohio, this ambitious warmongering project by these merchants of death is slated to begin in mid-2026, but has yet to break ground.

The same cannot be said of another dramatic Peace Through Strength display of militarism. On June 14, the 79th birthday anniversary of Donald Trump. an unprecedented massive military parade over four miles long will take place in Washington, D.C. involving some 7000 troops; hundreds of military vehicles including 28 M1 tanks; and scores of military helicopters/aircraft. The militaristic spectacle is estimated to cost taxpayers at least $40 million and perhaps as much as $100 million. For his 50th birthday celebration, Adolf Hitler held a massive military parade in Berlin lasting four hours that involved thousands of troops and hundreds of war planes on April 20, 1939.  Four weeks later Nazi Germany invaded Poland and launched WWII.

Given the warmongering overtones voiced explicitly against Russia, China, Iran and North Korea at the Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton, it will not come as a great surprise if a NATO/US attack on one or more of these designated “Axis” powers comes next. Yet the power of the people is greater than the people in power. And if there was ever a time to prove it, that time is now.