So I’m checking my E-mail and one of friends sends me this little blurb from Democracy Now.
“U.S. Moves Closer to Building New Stockpile of Nuclear WeaponsThe Washington Post is reporting the United States has moved a step closer toward building a new stockpile of nuclear weapons that would last well into the 21st century. Late last week, Bush administration officials announced the start of a multiyear process to repair and replace eight facilities where the nuclear weapons would be developed and assembled. The Bush administration is planning to replace its aging stockpile of warheads with two thousand two hundred new nuclear weapons that would last for decades. The nation's two nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, are competing to design a new nuclear warhead.”
Am I the only one here who sees the belligerent hypocrisy in this? For the last several months the news has been full of stories about what it would mean to the world’s safety if North Korea or Iran developed nuclear weapons. Now we find out the Bush administration thinks our nuclear stockpile needs tidied up. I mean we can’t let our nuclear weapons get old and obsolete can we? That arsenal of about 10,000 warheads we have isn’t adequate. We need more.
We might have to fight North Korea who maybe has a missile that’s roughly effective as a slingshot.
Iran might use them on Israel. You mean like Pakistan and India almost used them on each other a few years back?
They might get into a terrorist’s hands. Let’s see the former Soviet Union had trouble with people trying to smuggle out fissile nuclear materials after the fall of Communism. Pakistan bought nuclear materials off of North Korea then sold them to Libya. Because Pakistan is our ally in our “War on Terror” their government was not held accountable.
The point is not that nuclear weapons in the hands of despots and radicals wouldn’t be bad. It would be horrific. But the point, if you’re honest with yourself, is that no one should have nuclear weapons. Since the Manhattan Project built the first nuclear weapons over 60 years ago we have loosed a terrible evil. The horrible arms race of the Cold War followed by that technology becoming available to almost any government that can afford it has left us, the human race, in a precarious position. As it stands now we are a people armed with the means to make ourselves extinct. No one should be entrusted with that kind of power. Both Oppenheimer and Nobel thought they could invent weapons horrible enough to prevent men from ever fighting another war. They were wrong. As long as the human race is ruled by fear and greed we will always fight and no weapon will be deemed to terrible to use on the enemy. There used to be something called “Mutually Assured Destruction” which was appropriately abbreviated MAD. MAD what was said to keep the United States and the Soviet Union from using nuclear weapons. They didn’t want to blow one another straight to Hell. So they restrained themselves from using them. Seeing how the United States and the Soviet Union never fought each other directly during the Cold War, only indirectly, I would say MAD was never put to the ultimate test. We’re on an even more dangerous precipice right now. It’s no longer us against them. It’s now several nations with the key to Pandora’s Box. We need to eliminate all nuclear weapons. They are too dangerous for anyone to have. We need to put an end to this before it puts and end to us.
“U.S. Moves Closer to Building New Stockpile of Nuclear WeaponsThe Washington Post is reporting the United States has moved a step closer toward building a new stockpile of nuclear weapons that would last well into the 21st century. Late last week, Bush administration officials announced the start of a multiyear process to repair and replace eight facilities where the nuclear weapons would be developed and assembled. The Bush administration is planning to replace its aging stockpile of warheads with two thousand two hundred new nuclear weapons that would last for decades. The nation's two nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore, are competing to design a new nuclear warhead.”
Am I the only one here who sees the belligerent hypocrisy in this? For the last several months the news has been full of stories about what it would mean to the world’s safety if North Korea or Iran developed nuclear weapons. Now we find out the Bush administration thinks our nuclear stockpile needs tidied up. I mean we can’t let our nuclear weapons get old and obsolete can we? That arsenal of about 10,000 warheads we have isn’t adequate. We need more.
We might have to fight North Korea who maybe has a missile that’s roughly effective as a slingshot.
Iran might use them on Israel. You mean like Pakistan and India almost used them on each other a few years back?
They might get into a terrorist’s hands. Let’s see the former Soviet Union had trouble with people trying to smuggle out fissile nuclear materials after the fall of Communism. Pakistan bought nuclear materials off of North Korea then sold them to Libya. Because Pakistan is our ally in our “War on Terror” their government was not held accountable.
The point is not that nuclear weapons in the hands of despots and radicals wouldn’t be bad. It would be horrific. But the point, if you’re honest with yourself, is that no one should have nuclear weapons. Since the Manhattan Project built the first nuclear weapons over 60 years ago we have loosed a terrible evil. The horrible arms race of the Cold War followed by that technology becoming available to almost any government that can afford it has left us, the human race, in a precarious position. As it stands now we are a people armed with the means to make ourselves extinct. No one should be entrusted with that kind of power. Both Oppenheimer and Nobel thought they could invent weapons horrible enough to prevent men from ever fighting another war. They were wrong. As long as the human race is ruled by fear and greed we will always fight and no weapon will be deemed to terrible to use on the enemy. There used to be something called “Mutually Assured Destruction” which was appropriately abbreviated MAD. MAD what was said to keep the United States and the Soviet Union from using nuclear weapons. They didn’t want to blow one another straight to Hell. So they restrained themselves from using them. Seeing how the United States and the Soviet Union never fought each other directly during the Cold War, only indirectly, I would say MAD was never put to the ultimate test. We’re on an even more dangerous precipice right now. It’s no longer us against them. It’s now several nations with the key to Pandora’s Box. We need to eliminate all nuclear weapons. They are too dangerous for anyone to have. We need to put an end to this before it puts and end to us.
posted by Eric at 10:25 PM
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