Steven D’s frontpage article analyzes the astounding Sy Hersh story which says that Bush is planning the extensive and sustained bombing of Iran, including nuclear bombs.
This diary adds a little emphasis, a bit more information, but its chief purpose is a plea: CONTACT CONGRESS NOW and get them to raise the alarm. We can stop this, and if we do, there is nothing more important than any of us will have done in our lives.
It’s the weekend. There are so many other outrages clamoring for attention. But there is nothing more important than stopping the use of nuclear weapons. Nothing. And we need to start right now.
In the comments to Steven D’s story, Jim S refers to a Popular Science article, Bombs Away. It describes just what nuking a bunker entails, in four steps. Here is the fourth:
The National Academy of Sciences estimates that the explosion will shoot some 300,000 tons of radioactive debris up to 15 miles into the air. The total number of casualties will vary but could exceed one million, depending on weather, wind velocity and the blast’s proximity to towns and cities.
And, by the way, if the bunker is deep enough, it can still survive.
A big red flag in Hersh’s story was this paragraph:
He went on, “Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout–we’re talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years. This is not an underground nuclear test, where all you see is the earth raised a little bit. These politicians don’t have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out”–remove the nuclear option–“they’re shouted down.”
In other words, they don’t realize what they are doing. The first use of nuclear weapons since World War II, against people who haven’t attacked a single American, would have catastrophic consequences even beyond the blast, the radiation, the fallout circling the world.
The Pandora’s box of nuclear war, kept shut all of those enormously dangerous years of the Cold War, will open. Nukes will become usable weapons, and nothing but death, destruction and chaos could result.
Immediate consequences to the U.S.–we would be the outcast nation of the earth. Oil prices would skyrocket, the economy could collapse. Not just because of oil disruption in the Middle East, where the first nuke used may not be the last. But because outraged nations like Venezeula may simply refuse to export oil to a nation of mass murderers.
The other very important paragraph of Hersh’s story is this one:
The House member said that no one in the meetings “is really objecting” to the talk of war. “The people they’re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?” (Iran is building facilities underground.) “There’s no pressure from Congress” not to take military action, the House member added. “The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it.” Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, “The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.”
Congress has a Constitutional responsibility in matters of war. The only way to stop the messianic Bush is with immediate, strong, sustained and massive Congressional pressure. Members of Congress must go public with their alarm and demand to know what’s really going on.
The Democratic leadership must make this a priority. What could possibly be more important than stopping nuclear holocaust?
So this is the most importance instance yet, in my view, for the blogosphere to demand that members of Congress pay attention, demand answers, and demand that the nuclear option is off the table. Demand as well that no invasion take place without Congressional authorization.
This is urgent. The future of this country and of the world depends on Bush being stopped from launching a nuclear holocaust.