An Age Of Nuclear Terror

By LENNA MAE and LARRY GARA,
Guest Columnist
8/13/2007 8:26:00 AM
WNewsJ

Sixty-two years ago, few people understood that splitting the atom threatened the future of the human race.

Twenty-five years passed before we were permitted to see photographic proof of the horror created in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

By then, U.S. monopoly of nuclear technology had ended, and the Soviet Union and other countries were building and testing such weapons. Atmospheric tests were supposed to be safe, yet many American G.I.s died after exposure to radioactivity from the Nevada tests.

In 1963, recognizing the danger of atmospheric tests, the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated a Limited Test Ban Treaty to end them. The Non-Proliferation Treaty followed in 1968, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, though the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the latter.

The United States still has thousands of nuclear weapons ready to launch, more than enough to destroy all life on the planet.

Russia, France, Great Britain, China, Israel, Pakistan and India also have nuclear weapons and the capacity to launch them across national borders.

North Korea and Iran are eager to join the nuclear club and may already have done so.

During the Cold War it was understood that the U.S. would use such weapons only as a deterrent.

Now our policy has evolved from "No First Strike" to a stated willingness to use them, even against non-nuclear nations, if circumstances warrant.

The Bush Administration also hopes to build and test new nuclear weapons in defiance of world opinion.

The proposed military budget includes a request for $6.4 billion for an expanded nuclear weapons program, a move that would betray our treaty obligation to "negotiate toward general and complete disarmament."

Facing the dangers of nuclear weapons programs is not a liberal or conservative issue, but transcends national boundaries to address the question of human survival.

In January, 2007 a little-reported column appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Titled "A Bipartisan Plea for Nuclear Weapons Abolition," the article was signed by George Schultz, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sam Nunn, all major political figures during the Cold War, and none of them a "liberal."

Outlining the dangers of nuclear weapons and urging the U.S. to take practical steps toward their abolition, the authors wrote:

"Reassertion of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and practical measures toward achieving that goal would be, and would be perceived as, a bold initiative consistent with America's moral heritage. The effort could have a profoundly positive impact on the security of future generations."

For those of us old enough to remember when no country had nuclear weapons, their statement is stunning.

If those Cold Warriors believe that nuclear weapons must be abolished the media and world leaders should pay attention.

Under a nuclear cloud, any border dispute or ethnic disagreement could bring unimaginable catastrophe.

It remains to 21st century Earthlings to find ways to avoid such violent conflicts.

A good place to start is here at home, by supporting Congressman Hobson and others who refuse to fund new nuclear weapons, and by heeding the advice of Henry Kissinger and his friends to work strenuously for abolition of nuclear weapons on Planet Earth.