Warnings from former General Kujat:
https://www.haz.de/Nachrichten/Politik/Deutschland-Welt/Ex-General-warnt-vor-Atomkrieg-aus-Versehen
Quote from the book „Sicherheitspolitik verstehen“ (2019) by Lieutenant General (ret.) Kersten Lahl and Prof. Dr. Johannes Varwick, page 121, or 2nd edition (2021), page 130:
www.fwes.info/zitat-LV-kB-en.pdf
Warnings from former American ministers (including ex-Defense Minister Perry):
Warnings from Mikhail Gorbachev:
“If one loses one’s nerve in the face of this heated mood, we will not survive the next few years. I don’t say that lightly. I’m really worried about everything.” (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/gorbatschow-warnt-vor-grossem-krieg-in-europa-a-1012201.html, 11.1.2015)
“As long as there are nuclear weapons, there is still a danger that they will be used. Be it by chance, a technical malfunction or even by an evil human will. That is why we must pursue with vigour the objective of banning and destroying nuclear weapons. That is our duty.” (Mikhail Gorbachev: “Kommt endlich zur Vernunft – Nie wieder Krieg! Benevento Publishing, 2017, page 12)
“A nuclear weapon can be accidentally fired due to a technical defect or error – caused a human being or a computer. This is what worries me most. Today, computer systems are used everywhere, in aviation, in industry, in all kinds of control systems, and accidents caused by computers and electronics happen everywhere. Nuclear weapons can be triggered by false alarms – the shorter the flight time of the missile to the target, the higher the probability of such misuse. They can fall into the hands of terrorists. And who knows what other surprises there are?” (Mikhail Gorbachev: Was jetzt auf dem Spiel steht. Mein Aufruf für Frieden und Freiheit. Settler Publishing House, 2019, page 26)
Two quotes from the press:
Die Zeit, 15.2.2018, page 15-17:
“With the end of the Cold War, fear of a nuclear war also waned. But now fear has returned. The worst thing is that it is justified. … The missile crisis has arrived. But it has not yet been noticed by the public.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 12.6.2018, page 11:
“And yet today there is no more public outcry, little outrage, no mass demonstrations. William Perry is one of those who seek an explanation for this indifference. … Perry says that governments are no longer getting enough pressure from their populations because the population is not realising how great the danger is. The feeling has spread that the nuclear threat has largely disappeared with the end of the Cold War. In the Cold War, Perry said, the bomb at least provided a certain stability. Today it is only dangerous. (Perry is a former US Secretary of Defense.)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator