The Empire and the Bomb

Last night I went to see a speaker named Joseph Gerson who was promoting his new book Empire and the Bomb. According to some random University of Michigan page I was just on, Joseph Gerson is:

"Director of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England---the principal Quaker peace organization in the United States. He is a leading figure in the U.S. peace movement. His previous books include The Sun Never Sets and With Hiroshima Eyes."

Here is what I remember learning:

• Since the end of WWII, every president has explicitly threatened another country thirty times with nuclear war. These countries include Russia, China, Vietnam, and countries of the Middle East. This caused Gerson to make the analogy "if you walk up to someone, point a gun at their hand and ask them for their cash. . .even if you don't fire. . . you've used the gun."
  
• The U.S. has around 15,000 nuclear warheads right now. Approximately half of them are deployed. Each weapon could take out a city the size of Los Angeles.
  
• The matter of disarmament hinges on article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires nuclear countries to disarm. A refusal to do so is a breech of contract and thus urges other countries who had previously ratified the treaty to seek nuclear weapons of their own.

He had some really great anecdotes about former CIA directors that he had spoken to (John Deutch and Stansfield Turner) and about how they were well aware that the implementation of Article VI had never been the intention of the United States.

He also spoke eloquently about the need for disarmament and highlighted the fact that even crazy fucks like Kissinger now believe that our interests cannot be met by maintaining a nuclear arsenal. KISSINGER. Golden child of realpolitik. . .wants us to disarm.

So, we basically have two options:

1. We can continue to develop our own nuclear weapons arsenal. This will fuel the creation of other programs in other countries and eventually lead to millions of people dying.
   
2. We can negotiate and begin to disarm.
   

It seems like a very easy choice.

I also thought it was interesting that someone in the audience brought up suitcase bombs.
The idea that some crazy person with a death wish would somehow be deterred from letting off a bomb in Manhattan because the U.S. has a huge nuclear arsenal is absolutely ridiculous.

That's it from me. Here's a link for the background of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at Wikipedia: