Still talking nuclear bombs? Really?

CHASING DOWN THE MUSE

Excuse me! My muse is furious. My muse is frightened and confused.

Has President George Bush and his administration completely lost

their minds? Just when did nuclear weapons become part of our

“conventional” arsenal? When did a so-called limited nuclear assault

slip beyond the range of unconscionable? Am I missing something here?

Let’s be sneaky. Let’s play word games. Let’s give those weapons a

cute name -- “Bunker Busters” -- so that we’ll somehow go unconscious

and not remember that what we are really talking about here are

thermo-nuclear weapons -- atomic bombs.

And to counter what? Weapons of mass destruction? Pardon me, but

the last time I looked, nuclear weapons were the ultimate tool for

mass destruction. If you’ve got any reservations, and the stomach,

take a close look at the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Look

closely at the lack of buildings. Look at the shadows of the people

who were literally vaporized. This is not tenable. We’ve spent half

of a century working to rid the globe of a nuclear threat. How can it

be that here, in my own country, the president and his advisors have

decided that a nuclear bomb is OK to use after all. And not in

retaliation, which we’ve all held as the worst-case scenario, back-up

position, but as a first-strike option.

I grew up with “duck and cover” drills, as if our student desks

would actually protect us from radiation. I grew up amid an arms race

with Russia, when the unthinkable -- nuclear war -- was the threat to

end all threats. I grew up believing that to step into the nuclear

arena meant the end to life as we know it. We shoot. They shoot. All

the lights go out.

The Cold War looks like child’s play against the scenarios being

proposed by our government. Shifting nuclear weapons from their

special category sanction and placing them alongside conventional

weapons rejects every fiber of moral strategizing and negotiations

that we have struggled for over decades. We have been the leader in

disarmament talks, non- proliferation treaties and test ban

agreements. How can we expect countries like North Korea to dismantle

their nuclear weapons program, when obviously, we are re-defining and

expanding our own.

Sept. 11 was a tragedy of overwhelming proportions, as horrific to

the current generation as the attack on Pearl Harbor was 62 years

ago. It altered the social fabric of our country and filled our

populace with fears that haunt our everyday. Terrorism is real, alive

and expanding, and for peace loving people, it needs to be cut out

like a cancer. This doesn’t mean, however, to undo in minutes, what

has taken decades to negotiate and agree upon worldwide. There are no

winners in a nuclear conflagration.

If the Washington-driven media has somehow soothed you into

thinking that this “new” use of nuclear detonations is safe, then the

findings of Robert Nelson might shed a different light. In his

article, “Low-Yield Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons,” he writes:

“No earth-burrowing missile can penetrate deep enough into the earth

to contain an explosion with a nuclear yield even as small as 1% of

the 15-kiloton Hiroshima weapon. The explosion simply blows out a

massive crater of radioactive dirt, which rains down on the local

region with an especially intense and deadly fallout.”

You too, could have a crater in your own back yard!

Take a look around. Small children play in grassy fields. We walk

our dogs along the shoreline and parks. We hold and cherish our

families and community and work together to make each day richer and

of more meaning. Our are lives filled with almost unimaginable beauty

and wealth. We have come so far.

Am I afraid of biological weapons? Terrified. Am I grateful that

we have a strong and robust military and defense program? More than

ever. Do I want to see our nation become the first in 50 years to use

nuclear weapons in a first strike? No. Are we willing to stand in

front of the global community that we have led and say, “Gee. Sorry.

We changed our minds about the nukes.” Or can we continue to force

ourselves to step to the negotiating table, when the work is the

hardest, and the rest of the world does not agree with our position.

Can we listen, not just posture, and strive to foster what is good

among men?

I hold the United States of America as my sacred homeland, built

upon the blood of those men and women who sought freedom from

repression. I believe that we have grown to be the eminent world

power because of a government called democracy, in which we all have

a voice in the structural workings. It rests upon our shoulders to

speak out so our representatives can know our voices. Let them know

what you think. While you still can.

* CATHARINE COOPER is a local designer, photographer and writer

who thrives off beaten trails. She can be reached at

cooper@cooperdesign.net or (949) 497-5081.