David Swanson, author of several anti-war books and organiser of peace demonstrations, argued “madness” and a “drive to dominate the world” underpinned the threat of all-out war between the world’s leading powers.
He told Express.co.uk: “The doomsday clock is closer to midnight than it has ever been.
“The actual danger of nuclear apocalypse is greater than it has ever been – exacerbated by the fact people are far less aware of it than they used to be.
“We ought to be scared out of our minds by nuclear apocalypse.”
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The writer of ‘Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union’ added: “The US is capable of destroying any spot on the planet in a matter of hours with non-nuclear weapons.
“And until the United States stops its aggressive war policies, these other countries are not going to give up their nuclear weapons.
“This is far more dangerous than the previous cold war – in part because there is not the buffer zone of eastern Europe.”
Americans have put the military at the top of the list of most important institutions measured by US pollster Gallup for the past 20 years.
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In its latest update, conducted in 2017, Gallup said 72 percent of Americans had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military.
On the findings, the research group said: “Americans cite their perceptions of the professional and competent way in which the military has executed its responsibilities, followed by a focus on the importance of what the military does for the country.”
US President Donald Trump has “normalised” militarism within the US and successfully made poor people patriotic, Mr Swanson maintained.
He said: “And this is not something people want to talk about.
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“Militarism is normalised and celebrated and has endless holidays – inducing Veterans Day, which replaced Armistice Day, it is unquestionable in public discourse.”
Fiery rhetoric in the US has engendered a public opinion shift towards support of militarism, with a “very high” percentage of people willing to fight for their country, the activist, who is planning a peace protest in Washington with anti-war group World Beyond War in April next year, explained.
He said: “In various studies, the US is very high – compared to European countries for example – in terms of the percentage of people who say they would participate in a war for their country.
“It is over 40 percent in the United States.”
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Mr Swanson continued to assert the US people believed their nation was “superior” to others and this meant they could wage wars without the consent of the United Nations.
He said: “The US also has the highest percentage of its public that believes its nation is superior, believes its nation is so superior as to merit special rights and privileges denied to every other nation, believes its nation has the right to launch a war without the United Nations and so forth.
“In terms of various measures of patriotism/nationalism, the US is right at the top – including flags per capita.”
According to statistician Statista, 85 percent of Americans consider themselves to be “patriotic”.
However, a more recent Gallup poll conducted in July 2018 found a record-low of 47 percent of US citizens were “extremely proud to be Americans”.