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TechnoratiToday and Thursday, as we mark the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is fitting that we take a moment out of our busy Maine summers to remember the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who perished on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945.Now, 62 years later, the Bush administration wants to start building new nuclear bombs.
They've got to be kidding. How is this possible?
It is not only possible; the planning for it is well under way. A new design has been selected. A proposal to proceed with development is before Congress. Even more ominous, plans have been drafted to build a new generation of nuclear bomb-making factories at eight sites across the country -- intended to produce thousands of new nuclear weapons for decades to come.
What are they thinking? How could this possibly be serving our national security interests?
The stunning reality is that nobody knows the answers to these questions. U.S. nuclear weapons policy is completely out of date.
'NEW AND DANGEROUS ERA'
But there is hope that we can slow down the Bush administration's rush to build new nuclear weapons.
Recently, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn jointly declared: "The world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous era. We endorse the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons."
With such respected, conservative leaders now advocating for nuclear abolition, the time is ripe to take action to fundamentally change our nuclear weapons policy.
Current Bush administration policy includes threatening to use nuclear weapons, not only in response to an attack against us, but pre-emptively against any country we judge to be a security threat. Some have suggested a nuclear attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
In a recent report by Physicians for Social Responsibility, utilizing the same computer model used by the Defense Department, it is documented that up to 3 million people would likely be killed in such an attack. Do we really want a national security policy based on threatening innocent civilians with mass murder?
Perhaps those supporting development of new nuclear weapons ought to take a trip to Ground Zero in Manhattan. There they might pause to remember that each nuclear weapon among the thousands still in our arsenal, and each new nuclear weapon the Bush administration proposes to build, threatens others with death and destruction dwarfing the World Trade Center attack.
If we are frightened of weapons of mass destruction being used against us, how can threatening others with nuclear weapons possibly help? When other countries see the United States targeting them with nuclear weapons and planning to build new ones, their interest in obtaining the same weapons is stimulated.
It is a dangerous delusion to believe nuclear weapons enhance our security. Acting as if they provide protection inspires others to share in this delusion -- all of which increases the nuclear danger for all of us.
LET SNOWE KNOW
In the House, Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud have voted with the majority on a bill eliminating funding for the first new nuclear weapons in two decades and calling for a thorough review of current U.S. nuclear weapons policy.
Sen. Susan Collins has just co-sponsored legislation halting the proposed new nuclear weapons program until after such a policy review has been completed.
All three deserve our thanks.
However, the full Senate has not yet dealt with the issue, and Sen. Olympia Snowe has not decided how she will vote.
It is well past time to change course. Every Maine citizen has a role to play in creating a world free of the nuclear threat. Snowe needs to hear that an overwhelming majority of us want her to join the rest of our congressional delegation in leading us away from a nuclear holocaust.
© 2007 The Portland Press Herald
13 Comments so far
Show AllHow would you rather die? From a blinding flash that vaporizes you or blows you apart into sub-microscopic pieces? Or from a long, painful, slow death caused by cancer?
While a good article on the best known instruments of the nuclear Sword of Damacles hanging over all of us in this world, this article fails completely to even mention the most pervasive & insidious nuclear 'genie' facing us that is already out of the bottle...namely DU (depleted uranium).
Unless the US immediately ceases the use of DU munitions, in combat & on practice ranges, all life forms on this planet down to a microbial level could be doomed to extinction. And it won't be a coup de gras (quick death), but a slow protracted agonizing one. In fact, it could not only be the fauna that goes away, but the flora as well, since the two are inter-connected. Even severe climate change doesn't have the drastic killing potential of depleted uranium.
I am not the expert you should listen to, only a concerned world citizen, and messenger. If you Google depleted uranium, or even just DU, you will find over 1,300,000 references to this weapon of mass destruction, and very few articles, other than biased militaristic propaganda, will have anything good, positive, or constructive to say about it.
Our government doesn't want the public to know this threat to all of us exists (and by continued use of DU weapons is even increasing as you read & I write), is in denial of the danger to even our own soldiers, obfuscates & twists research already completed on this nuclear menace, and even has actively intimidated & blocked those trying to do further research.
Have you heard about this criminal & life threatening subject through the main stream media?...very, very rarely. Will you hear more before it becomes an undeniably catastrophic disaster?...probably not. Will our government & military try a cover-up until irreversable damage is widespread (it might be already)?...most likely.
Although this article deals with the vital subject of internationally stopping the further proliferation of nuclear bombs it fails to even mention the looming disaster from the atomic war going on right now by the past & continued use of depleted uranium weaponry. It's not a big bang and a bright white flash, but a more subtle, pervasive, insidious cancerous growth that must cease IMMEDIATELY.
I challenge every person who cares for themselves, family members, friends, country, and world, to Google & read about the horrific consequences of DU usage. Be careful if you have a weak stomach or caring heart because many of the numerous articles are very graphic. The pictures of the deformaties are backed up by incontrovertable statistics & facts that will make you question the sanity and monsterous behavior of anyone who would even consider the use of such a vile weapon on fellow humans. The tens or hundreds of millions who died from war, genocide, and intentional starvation during the last millenium will seem like a tea party compared to the BILLIONS who could suffer a slow miserable painful death from DU usage.
GO NOW!!! Google DU and read, then come back and post your findings & opinions on this blog...I DARE YOU TO SEE TRUTH.
KRISTINA40: Right on!
Goose, then where would that 1TRILLION go? It's not a secret that this adminstration has cut federal funding for just about anything that doesn't relate to his pet projects (war). If your bridges are safe, you are one of the lucky ones. Thousands have recieved failing grades and nothing has been done to fix them. Dams are also in danger of failing as are our aging nuke plants. The point being, we can ill afford a trillion dollars for the boy king's mistakes when our own country is falling apart around us...
I wonder if Kissinger, Schultz, Perry and Nunn's new-found concern is a result of their realization that Bush/Cheney are complete nut cases, and that Americans are likely elect (and re-elect) a similar pair?
Instead of retiring old nukes, why not give them to Palestinians, Iranians, Pakistanians, Iraqis, Syrians, and to all non-nuclear countries in danger of attack by or in the process of being attacked by the nuclear ones? Why not sell them to anybody like we do with guns? If guns will stop somebody from attacking you, nukes will stop any country from attacking your country. Look at North Korea.
Hundreds of millions have been screaming NO NUKES for sixty years and look where that's gotten us. Anyone have a Plan B? Besides renaming them Freedom Makers, that is...
"Kristina40 - Ah, ic nwfisher, kinda like our roads, bridges and infrastructure? Oh wait, we aren't fixing those…"
Hmmm. Where do you live? I am in the Bay Area and we are getting a new Bay Bridge to replace an old span that uses a similar design to the downed bridge. There are new BART stations, faster rail service with new rail cars on CalTrain. There is a planned new connection from BART to the Oakland Airport terminals. There are highway widning projects and repairs on 101 and 280 that just finished. A new interchange at 85 and 101. 85 opened it's full length about 10-12 years ago so I think that counts as new. CalTrans is building a tunnel on highway 1 to bypass Devil's Slide. There are a lot of repairs that can be made, but that situation isn't any different than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago, in fact, most infrastructure here seems to be in pretty good shape.
I just don't buy that infrastructure is suffering because of the war. If the war hadn't been fought, the money wouldn't be going to infrasructure anyway.
This would make an excellent survey question in the "presidential debtes" as in, "By a show of hands, how many of you would halt the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons as well as the weaponization of outer space?"
Forget this "If oo were a twee, what sort of a twee would oo be?" type of crap questions that usually get asked.
Also when the candidates ignore the substance of the question the moderator should say, "Okay so you refuse to answer the question are any of the rest of you willing to answer this question?" Then let's see how long this triangulation evasive crap continues.
Ah, ic nwfisher, kinda like our roads, bridges and infrastructure? Oh wait, we aren't fixing those...
Because they are aging, potentially unstable/unreliable and based on 30 or 40 year old technology. They want to retire old missles and replace them with new ones.
Am I mistaken, or do we already have enough nukes to blow the Planet to hell hundreds of times over? We need more? For what?
In Bush's reality, he can Bomb any country into submission.
No matter what the threat, if you can outbomb the other person, you win.
It does not matter how many die. Or where they die. It could be in the country that the US is bombing, it could be here at home. As long as the people that matter to him are alive.
Perhaps not even that. The perfect Taliban mentality. The raison de etre of the clique that Bush belongs to is the only cause. As long this clique is in power, who cares about America and what Americans think.
The power hungry in China must also think similarly.
Time to move to South Africa?
I was telling some friends that there was NOTHING in any of the news outlets in the US regarding the atrocity and war crime committed by the US on Aug. 6th 1945. Harry S. Truman gave the order to slaughter Japanese civilians needlessly. ALL the military intelligence of the day indicated an invasion of Japan would not be necessary. The only real concern of the Truman administration was the cost of feigning an invasion with obvious troop buildup that would precede an invasion. Certainly there was o need for the Nagasaki bomb dropped 3 days later on August 9th.
But as it all turns out someone actually did remember and it is posted here of course, on Common Dreams!! Thank you Portland Press Herald in Maine and thanks to Peter Wilk!!
The only real concern I have is that Mr.Wilk seems to be looking to close to home for the reasons that the Rogue Administration of Terror sponsoring warmongers will use as justification for a new nuclear build up.
Mr. Wilks writes;
"It is not only possible; the planning for it is well under way. A new design has been selected. A proposal to proceed with development is before Congress. Even more ominous, plans have been drafted to build a new generation of nuclear bomb-making factories at eight sites across the country — intended to produce thousands of new nuclear weapons for decades to come.
What are they thinking? How could this possibly be serving our national security interests?"
Well, how else can we control space but with nukes!! It is apparent to me that this rogue president Cheney has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in the past 8 years.
Halliburton, president Cheney's real employer, has landed a permanent war contract to feed the troops forever no bids necessary. They have also won the contracts to rebuild Iraq's oil fields for which they have charged the US taxpayers and have not done a thing in Iraq. Halliburton has also landed the no bid contract to build more prisons here at home - for the homegrown people who can still think for themselves. The goasl in Iraq was accomplished - a civil war between Sunni's and Shiites which will spill over into Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran later. Total chaos was the goal in the Middle East and it seems to be working just fine.
Bridges? We don't need no stinking bridges!