By:Chris Lugo
It has been almost forty years since the United States signed on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and now is the time to begin to live up to the spirit of that treaty. The NPT has been signed by 189 nations and was intended as a framework to move the world toward both the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the eventual dismantlement of weapons of mass destruction. In our time, these instruments of genocide and apocalypse have hung over our heads like an angel of death, haunting the vast majority of our foreign policy decisions and at times pushing the planet to the edge of nuclear war.
It has been a long time since anyone felt the conscious threat of global thermonuclear war like the kind of visions of destruction that seemed to capture popular consciousness in the 1980's, but the reality of those weapons and their threat still looms large over foreign policy decisions, and now is the time to begin to take concrete steps toward dismantlement and destruction, before it is too late. Right now, while our world is at relative peace regarding global threats to security, right now, while the United States has the will and the leadership, right now, while the generation which dedicated itself to peace and social justice has the vision and the determination, right now is the time to dismantle our own weapons of mass destruction.
This may seem like a dangerous idea to some. Many Americans cannot imagine a world without nuclear weapons. I myself know that many people feel that our only real security lies in this superior construction of Armageddon, but the fact is that we are the greatest threat to world security right now. In spite of our ideals, in spite of the spirit of our democratic tradition, there is nothing democratic, there is no message of freedom in our collection of weapons of mass destruction. Just like a drug addict who needs his fix, we still crave the power that comes from the threat and fear that these weapons generate.
There are no words to honestly describe our condition. We stand at a moment in history that is generally unique. We have never before faced a time when our cleverness and our own skills as a society can lead to our complete undoing. This is the reality that these weapons generate. They are instruments not of democracy, but of tyranny. They are not agents of peace, but rather agents of total destruction and we have a moral obligation to dismantle these weapons of destruction and live up to the spirit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that we signed almost forty years ago.
We can live in a world of peace, if we take concrete steps now to live up to our better selves. It is possible to resolve international conflicts without threatening to completely destroy other cultures, other peoples. We have the collective intelligence to create a more meaningful future for ourselves and our future generations. By investing in our domestic infrastructure, by supporting fair trade policies, by creating universal health care, by offering meaningful access to education at all levels in our society, by investing in alternative energy and moving away from our addiction to oil, by supporting the international community, by investing in programs to support the global south, by divesting in war and violence as the only solution to international conflict and by dismantling our weapons of mass destruction we can move toward the kind of world that Martin Luther King Jr. imagined nearly forty years ago.
Forty years after the NPT is only two generations. Let's not wait even one more before we rid ourselves of these instruments of global genocide. If you care about peace and want to make a statement that will be heard by people around the world then I would like to encourage you to come to Oak Ridge, Tennessee this Sunday, April 13th for the twentieth anniversary of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance public demonstration for peace. Oak Ridge is the home of the only atomic bombs ever used on a human population. Constructed between 1942-45, the bombs manufactured in Eastern Tennessee were used to killed tens of thousands of civilians in 1945. Since that time Oak Ridge has continued to play an instrumental role in the production and maintenance of America's nuclear weapons complex.
On April 13th hundreds of people will gather in Oak Ridge to march to the gates of the Y-12 facility and call for an end to the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction. They will also call for a plan to clean up the oak ridge environment, which has been polluted by decades of abuse and a plan for dismantling our nuclear weapons infrastructure. Some people may feel so strongly about this event that they will engage in non-violent civil disobedience to express their concern for humanity and our children's future. Others will protest in a law abiding fashion but with no less intent and concern for the future generations of this planet. I hope you can join us. For more information please visit the website www.stopthebombs.org.
Upcoming Events: If you are in the Oak Ridge area on Saturday night, April 12th at 8 PM you are invited to 447 East Drive, Oak Ridge for a meet the candidate event. I will be on hand to answer questions on various issues and meet voters and supporters. Food and refreshments will be provided. I will also be at the Oak Ridge Earth Day Celebration, which takes place between 12 and 5 PM on Saturday.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Imagining a World Without Nuclear Weapons
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1 comment:
Mr. Chris,
Your words are wise, and I would not ague the point, except to say there are always three sides to every coin, and mine is generally the one on the edge.
Having grown up with the nuclear threat, and being taught to hide under my desk for safety, my take is a bit different.
I am for dismantling the military in it’s almost totality. In this day and time all nations’ military strength should be used across borders only as disaster relief. Thus the military infrastructure might stay but the purely aggressive nature of war ships, tanks, missiles, bombers would completely disappear.
But what of our defense? That is where I think nuclear weapons do hold a purpose, but only without a standing army. If nuclear weapons are our only defense against attack, I seriously doubt anyone would attack us for any reason.
Now, IMHO, we are the most vulnerable to attack. We have armies flung all over the world, trying to accomplish ambiguous missions and as a result of failed political policy are creating a more dangerous environment by being occupiers. Any American knows how we would feel and think about a foreign (or domestic for that matter) military occupation. We would never quit fighting, never quit shooting at the occupying force at any and every opportunity.
But if we had no aggressive military, only defensive weapons such as the nuclear warheads then even China in all her military might, all her industrial might, all her human might would never consider even the cyber attacks they are now practicing.
We must realize the world is no longer our cherry to pick. We have eroded our might to the point we are competing poorly with what we think of as 3rd world nations.
I go back to the African proverb stolen by Theodore Roosevelt: “Speak softy but carry a big stick”.
The African could fight off a hungry lion this way, and we should be able to do the same. No aggressive force military that we could possibly assemble could fend off the Chinese should they decide to attack. We are out numbered by more than 10 times, they have all the hard industry now, not us…we have outsourced it. Their kids beat our kids in computer science and math skills from the get go. On and on…
It seems therefore to me, that keeping just enough nuclear weapons to fend off an attack, (not enough to blow up the entire planet 6 times) only enough for a reasonable (and certain) defense capability with no ground army is a better approach to peace.
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