Academic

Is this the First Step Toward Nuclear Holocaust?

By Robert Justin Lipkin

As if the state of the economy is not sufficiently dispiriting, the Guardian reports that senior, international, military figures have prepared a manifesto for NATO for the use of "preemptive" nuclear attacks. Consider this report: "The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the 'imminent' spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists. . . . Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a 'grand strategy' to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a 'first strike' nuclear option remains an 'indispensable instrument' since there is 'simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world.'" To read on click here.

It's difficult to appreciate the rationality of this strategy. Are these military strategists so insulated from the rest of society that collateral effects of using nuclear weapons to prevent others from obtaining nuclear weapons is viewed as essential? And even if attacking these nations is appropriate why use nuclear weapons? Moreover, not to be pedantic, but these military wizards are talking about "preventive" attacks, not "preemptive" ones. The former is attacking a country well before there's the imminent threat of danger, while the latter is taking out a nation, when its planes on revving up on the runway, so to speak. Rather than begin the process of rendering Planet Earth a nuclear-free zone, the prospect of deploying nuclear weapons is discussed recklessly and with impunity. Until we recognize, as we finally did in the Cold War, that nuclear weapons put everyone in jeopardy, even ourselves, the existence of nuclear weapons in the present war on terror will continue to threaten human flourishing. Rather than pursuing the strategic and tactical uses of nuclear weapons in the so-called war on terror, we should immediately revive the process of nuclear disarmament with the ultimate aim of eliminating nuclear weapons entirely.

Credit for First Image
Credit for Second Image

Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).