- "After the explosion itself, anyone
on the edge of the explosion (who were lucky enough to survive) would have
melted flesh and severe burns, the skin would literally fall off the bone.
Anyone who had seen the blast from such a distance would have permanent
loss of vision."
- http://www.armageddononline.org/nuke.php
-
- A little perspective, please
-
-
- After years of living under the perpetual
risk of the ultimate terrorist attack, most people have become acclimated
to the distinct possibility of imminent extinction of life on Earth. Fortunately,
humans tend to be highly adaptable beings, and most are able to go on with
their daily tasks without dwelling on potential doomsday scenarios.
-
- In fact, people have become so desensitized
to the threat of nuclear holocaust that those who still believe American
propaganda are more terrified of religious fanatics wielding box cutters
than they are of an ICBM capable of annihilating millions.
-
- According to the FBI, domestic terrorism
is:
-
- "the unlawful use, or threatened
use, of force or violence by a group or individual based and operating
entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction
committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government,
the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political
or social objectives."
-
- Given the knowledge that it is the United
States which created and primarily wields the power to extinguish life
on Earth, it is not a tremendous intellectual leap to classify the American
government as the world's most dangerous and most powerful terrorist.
-
- America's own domestic law enforcement
entity has defined terrorism as "threatened use of force or violence",
intimidation, and coercion against governments or civilian populations
for the "furtherance of political or social objectives".
-
- What could be more threatening or violent
than a nuclear attack? What could be more coercive than the US imposition
of its will, culture, and ruthless economic agenda on a global populace
like a domineering father abusing his cowed children? Employing terrorist
tools of intimidation, coercion and threats of violence, the United States
consistently sets the political and social objectives for the rest of the
world.
-
- Remember, Iran, "All options are
on the table."
-
- America is the Don Corleone of the world
community. They make offers you can't refuse. "Fat Man" and "Little
Boy" delivered the Sicilian message that nations defying the United
States would find many of their innocent civilians "sleeping with
the fishes". 200,000 dead Japanese showed the skeptics that the Godfather
meant business.
-
- Bearing in mind that the atomic bombs
deployed in Japan were mere firecrackers relative to today's nukes, the
following puts a grim perspective on the situation:
-
- "A single Hiroshima-size blast in
downtown Los Angeles, according to a computer projection done several years
ago by Physicians for Social Responsibility, would kill about 150,000 people
immediately and 100,000 more from neutron and gamma radiation. An additional
800,000 people would be exposed to high-level radiation."
- (Seattle Times)
-
- Evil begets evil
-
-
- Not only did the United States let the
nuclear genie out of the bottle and unleash it on humanity, through Operation
Paperclip, it provided safe haven for Nazi war criminals. During and after
World War II, the CIA altered the records of Nazi scientists so they could
enter the United States and contribute to the evolution of America's nuclear
weapons program.
-
- Needing an "enemy" for its
indoctrinated citizens to fear, the United States began demonizing Communism
in the 1950's. As they created their "bogeyman" so they could
manipulate the masses with psychological terror, America's leaders pushed
a nation with a much weaker economy into an insane scenario of Mutually
Assured Destruction and an arms race. By 2004, Russia's stockpile of warheads
had the combined power of 120,000 of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
-
- The combined nuclear capacity of the
United States and Russia at the height of the nuclear arms race was enough
to eradicate the Earth of life 1,500 times over.
-
- When is enough, enough?
-
- According to the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, in 2004 the United States had 10,000 nuclear warheads, 7,000
of which were operational. Yet existing in a realm of thought where logic
ceases to exist, America's leaders are obsessed with "national security".
The United States accounts for half of the world's military expenditures
to protect 350 million of the 6.5 billion people on Earth.
-
- With over 500 land-based ICBMs, the United
States can incinerate any region of a 4.5 billion year old planet within
a mere 35 minutes. The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles
are only one leg of America's triad of doom. Submarine-based Trident nuclear
missiles have the capacity to unleash Armageddon from the depths of the
Earth's tranquil oceans. Maintaining a fleet of B-1, B-2, and B-52 long-range
bombers, the USAF can also rain nuclear hell upon millions of unsuspecting
"units of collateral damage".
-
- Desperation and treachery are the parents
of US nuclear invention
-
-
- Realizing that the "Nuclear Club"
is rapidly expanding, the United States is desperately seeking ways to
circumvent treaties in which they have pledged to work toward the elimination
of nuclear weapons. As they down-sized their nuclear stock-pile in the
1990's by retiring ICBM's like the Peacekeeper, America's leadership found
ways to avoid truly surrendering its tools of terror.
-
- The United States began diverting substantial
portions of its obscene defense budget to its Stockpile Stewardship Program
to perpetuate and expand its nuclear capacities. Consider this 1996 statement
by the Department of Energy:
-
- "[n]ational security policies in
the post-Cold War era require that all historical capabilities of the weapons
laboratories, industrial plants, and NTS [the Nevada Test Site] be maintained,"
and that "denuclearisation... is not feasible based on current national
security policy."
-
- With the ethereal nuclear genie slipping
further from its grasp, the United States is now focusing its resources
and determined efforts toward ensuring nuclear proliferation to those it
deems deserving. Israel, the US satellite in the Middle East, and India,
a nation Uncle Sam is determined to lure into his bed, both qualify. Iran
and North Korea are obviously not welcome at the nuclear party, whether
they apply the technology for military purposes or not.
-
- On the domestic front, America's bellicose
government is emphasizing the enhancement of existing nuclear weapons to
give the appearance that it is not developing new ones. For example, the
B61-11 is a modification of the B61, a "tactical nuke" which
"only" has 2/3 the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. To
neutralize nations which have developed weapons facilities deep underground,
America created the B61-11 to burrow into rock before discharging its nuclear
payload. America's Neocons are itching to play with their new toys in Iran.
-
- The Pentagon claims that these "bunker
busters" would pose no threat to life outside of the underground targets.
However, Dr. Robert Nelson of Princeton University offers a significantly
differing opinion:
-
- "No earth-burrowing missile can
penetrate deep enough into the earth to contain an explosion with a nuclear
yield even as small as 1 percent 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."
-
- Dr. Nelson's analysis is substantially
more seaworthy than the stone the Pentagon tried to float when they proclaimed
earth-burrowing "mini-nukes" to be "safe".
-
- A Messiah complex, severely stunted emotional
intelligence and profound ignorance are the defining characteristics of
the man capable of making nuclear holocaust a reality within minutes. In
light of this, Osama bin Laden, box-cutters, and suicide bombers don't
seem quite so formidable or worrisome.
-
- Jason Miller is a 39 year old sociopolitical
essayist with a degree in liberal arts and an extensive self-education
(derived from an insatiable appetite for reading). He is a member of Amnesty
International and an avid supporter of Oxfam International and Human Rights
Watch. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on
his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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