NOTE TO 21ST CENTURY ANTI-NUCLEAR WEAPONS ACTIVISTS

Dear All,

I know that some of you are steeped in nuclear weapons facts and should be educating me. I am just providing a link to a little blog that I occasionally work on called All In the Nuclear Weapons Family http://littleboybigboy.blogspot.com/ The videos are pretty informative and some of them help bring home the terrible destructiveness
of these weapons. Unless people understand just how devastating these weapons are they are not likely to be appropriately concerned.

People have united against nuclear weapons before and I think that the appreciation of their terrible destructiveness and the fact that anyone can be targeted by them, defenses are nonexistent or very limited. So when people get these things they realize that nuclear disarmament is a practical way to protect all of us from nuclear weapons.


Nuclear weapons are a very intimate problem. Nuclear weapons have
been part of our lives since they were used in Japan and it isn't a secret but we do, as a nation, tend to look the other way when the destructive nature of these weapons are concerned. Of course many of us do feel safer with the United States having a nuclear arsenal and many Americans probably believe that the road to security is to have better and better nuclear weapons, but again most of us are not paying attention or deliberately look the other way when the issue of nuclear
weapons is raised.

Many of you may be too young to remember but may nontheless know that the Atomic Weapons scientists were big heroes in he United States. The A-bomb and H-bomb is largely what made them so popular.

Pakistani atomic bomb scientist Khan in Pakistan held in great esteem by most Pakistanis. The Pakistanis hope for security by having these WMDS.

North Korea is also quite intoxicated with its new nukes and it is interesting that even there we see a glorification of the atomic bomb scientists and they are even said to be asking for North Korea to develop these weapons and the delivery systems. Like Americans and Pakistanis.

North Korea's apparent testing of nuclear weapons helps put the issue of nukes back at the top of the political agenda. Obama's speech about abolishing nuclear weapons also gives some further indication that nuclear weapons are not only big news but also a big threat to the human race. His speech helps make this a mainstream issue and so it should be easier to legitimize the discussion if that is a problem.

Without going on and on I would like to suggest we think about persuasive and engaging arguments against the nuclear weapons as well as continuing to make the same basic arguments against nuclear weapons that have been made for decades. For example, the idea that it is a foolish decision to use our treasure to create and improve nuclear weapons is still a crucial argument. All the opportunity cost arguments are more relevant than ever with the deep economic crisis.

Being a target in a nuclear war is a lot more threatening than imprisoning some terrorists in and I think we have seen a lot of local anxiety about imprisoning terrorists at Leavenworth. I like to think that wise and sociable people can possibly help others better assess threats
and perhaps be more concerned about real threats like nuclear war and Kansas City being a target in such a war just because it is making essential nuclear weapons components.

It seems to me that the danger of nuclear war is greater than many may realize. Smaller nations like Israel and North Korea have developed not only nuclear weapons but may have what is a strategic deterrent. Most nations, including the nuclear weapon "HAVES", find the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons to be an undesirable
trend. How can this proliferation be stopped? The United States should lead by example and cut back or eliminate the nuclear weapon development programs that are already in place. The local plant could be phased out over a period of a few years if not defunded immediately. Or maybe it could just not be built at all, the new plant that is.

Improving U.S. nuclear weapons and/or improving them hardly sets a good example to other nations about the U.S. determination to really abolish these weapons. U. S. and other nuclear weapons should be decommissioned rather than refurbished, remade or improved. I think
the nuclear HAVES need to lead by example and in this case decommissioning should be the plan at the new facility! That could be put forward as a possibility. Of course decommissioning a few weapons while refining and deploying a huge nuclear stockpile is not what I am
suggesting. Nuclear weapons need to be eliminated. Decommissioning these weapons would be a "good job", wouldn't it?

OUR NUCLEAR WEAPONS FAMILY

Nuclear weapons are too destructive to actually use and too expensive to develop.

The advantage gained by those with nuclear weapons is based upon the assumption that the nuclear weapon possessor will be able to intimidate others with these especially destructive devices. The threat is the annihilation of a city or perhaps a world.

United States nuclear policy has been based on the idea that nuclear weapons can somehow be monopolized by the United States or by those currently holding such weapons. This has proven to be an illusion. Nation after nation has acquired nuclear weapons. Unless a concerted effort is made to ban all nuclear weapons proliferation is likely to continue.

The so called "balance of terror" achieved by adversaries possessing nuclear weapons leaves all parties essentially where they would be if all parties were at peace.

Of course the more nations with nuclear weapons must increase the probability that one of these weapons will be actually detonated on a target.

On the other hand the "balance of terror" does seem to inhibit invasion and enhance respect in some instances. North Korea is one example where the nuclear weapons of this tiny nation has led to some benefits and economic arrangements with the "West". Of course the same results could have been negotiated many years ago and North Korea would not have nuclear weapons. That would have allowed North Korea to divert those resources to economic development, education, health care. Everyone would be better off.

But with the possibility of nuclear tipped missiles from North Korea hitting our West Coast the United States decided to finally negotiate. So the nuclear weapons got North Korea that and all subsequent negotiations.

The nuclear weapons family is growing and will continue to grow until all nations, including the most powerful agree to systematically eliminate nuclear weapons. The exact method of achieving this goal can be developed by all nations involved. [Otherwise I'll present a foolproof method in a later blog entry, ahem.]