Launched originally at Liberal Street Fighter
Image is “Warmonger” by Jerry Povolny
I remember, as a child, having nightmares about nuclear war, reading in encyclopedias of melting flesh and shadows seared into stone. I remember teachers and other adults shying away from talking to a child fearful for the future.
I remember, back when Ronnie Raygun was joking about starting the bombing of the Soviet Union, the omnipresent fear that this country was out of control.
I remember that some spoke of a “peace dividend” after the Soviet Bloc fell apart, and the No Nukes movement had left some lingering warm feelings that maybe the discussion could shift, that perhaps we could work with the new Russian government, that non-proliferation could be pursued in earnest, that perhaps humankind was slowly coming to its senses, that perhaps we could begin to dismantle the suicidal nuclear weapons stockpiles and the delivery systems that had been designed to deliver oblivion to every corner of the globe.
Sometimes, if I take a deep breath, if I close my eyes, I can remember hoping that the newly resurgent right could be turned back, that we could return to good sense and reason, that we could decide not to be a threat to all life on Earth. The memories are fuzzy now, blotted out by each new nightmarish report:
The Bush administration on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for rebuilding the United States’ decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity.
The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation’s massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War.
We already knew that the Bush Administration are warmongers and death merchants, but this is creating problems where we already have problems enough:
The administration is also moving quickly ahead with a new nuclear bomb program known as the “reliable replacement warhead,” which began last year. Originally described as an effort to update existing weapons and make them inherently more reliable, it has been broadened and now includes the potential for new bomb designs. Weapons labs currently are engaged in a design competition.
The U.S. built its last nuclear weapon in 1989 and last tested a weapon underground in 1992. Since the Cold War, the U.S. has depended on massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons to deter attacks. By contrast, it would now increasingly rely on the capability to build future bombs for deterrence, D’Agostino said.
The blueprint calls for a modern complex to design a new nuclear bomb and have it ready in less than four years, allowing the nation to respond to changing military requirements. Such proposals in the past, such as for a nuclear bomb to attack underground bunkers, provoked concern that they undermine U.S. policy to stop nuclear proliferation.
The impetus for the plan is a growing recognition that efforts to maintain older nuclear bombs and keep up a large nuclear weapons industrial complex are technically and financially unsustainable.
Could we take that as an opportunity to just decide to whittle the arsenal down, to perhaps lead in a positive way for a damned change? No, of course not, it’s better to do everything we can to further destabilize an already messy world, rattling our sabres at Iran while cutting new deals for nuclear technology with India, a country that still refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, a deal that has already received some positive support from pathetic Vichy Dem Senators Biden and Kerry. After all, it’s a warmongerer partnership, our so-called “two party” political system.
This country is run by insane men, greedy men, evil men. They do great evil in our names, and far too many of us support them in their continued destructive policies. We speak of peace, of democracy and freedom, of compassion and opportunity … yet over and over again we choose obliteration, exploitation, subjugation. Still we are a danger to world, and becoming more dangerous all the time.
As we go about our business, our business of death, how long until we launch another war of choice? Will the next mushrooms sprout over the mountains of Iran, growing in the shadowy darkness of American aggression? You might laugh at that assertion, but it wasn’t long ago that we all laughed at an innarticulate pampered loser who looked like a chimp and had a long history of business failures and drunken, coke-fueled debauchery.
Then his friends stole him a country, and an arsenal to go with it.