Nuclear Weapons and Nuclearism: Abolish or Be Abolished
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 1 Feb 2016
Jan Oberg - Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research
The nuclear age is an age of terror
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapons of terror. You can’t use them without killing millions of innocent people. Targetting innocent people, people who are not part of a conflict, is a central defining characteristics of terrorism.
That’s why the world’s governments decades ago decided to work for general and complete disarmament – i.e. for nuclear abolition – in the spirit too of Alfred Nobel.
As a matter of fact, the first UN General Assembly resolution of January 24, 1946 established a Security Council tasked with achieving ‘the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other weapons adaptable to mass destruction.’
70 years ago!!
Today that Security Council consists of five arrogant nuclear powers in possession of more than 95% of the world’s nuclear weapons – and standing behind 75% of the world’s arms trade.
Today, however, people without a sense of history, addicted to militarist power and ignorant about ethics believe we can safely continue with nuclear arms races, doctrines for their use – and everything will go fine.
They even believe that those of us who uphold the ideals of nuclear abolition are naive: it is un-realistic to rid the world of these doomsday weapons, isn’t it?
Well, that’s like the man who has thrown himself out from the 48th floor and when passing the 8th convinces himself that “this is going fine.”
Private terrorism and state terrorism
The terrorist ideology most people associate with al-Qaeda and ISIS – small-scale and private – is found at a mega-level in state terrorism – the planned or accidental killing by nukes of millions upon millions of innocent civilians.
Whoever produces, possesses, stockpiles, does research on, has nuclear doctrines, plans the use of or actually uses nukes believes fundamentally in the philosophy of terrorism.
Whether NATO countries or North Korea.
Governments operating on that philosophy – also embedded in the term “balance of terror” – don’t want you to think of them in such terms.
They want us to believe that nuclear weapons preserve peace by deterring war.
However, this is nonsense. A deterrent is no deterrent if the adversaries know that the other will never, under any circumstance, push the button.
Fortunately, 107 countries are committed to ban nuclear weapons today.
Why they are so dangerous
1) Every nuclear weapon is there to be used if…the logic is false and human beings do not react rationally in stress situations.
2) There are constant incidents, accidents, risks, human and technical failures that endanger humanity’s survival.
Why do we so easily accept to live with the nuclear terror threat when we are obsessed about fighting a ‘war on terror’ only against the small-scale terrorists?
It’s time to take the fight to the next level – the fight against nuclear state terror. Before it too becomes a nuclear private terror.
Selected resources
Being committed to the UN Charter norm of making peace by peaceful means TFF is always here to provide public education on these issues.
Today we bring you some high-quality links to facts about nuclear weapons and about the dangers of the Nuclear Age – many of which you may not have thought of.
Please help share them, particularly to younger people who generally have very little knowledge about these matters.
More dangerous now than during the Cold War
List of nuclear military accidents
33.000 American workers dead from working in nuclear factories
The legality of nuclear weapons
The nuclear missile force beset with problems of discipline, training, leadership and morale
The US makes limited nuclear war more likely
International Committee of the Red Cross says
20 mishaps that could have started a nuclear war
Our public is blissfully unaware of the new nuclear dangers they face
Political responsibility in the nuclear age
Tactical nuclear weapons in Europe
Ten myths about nuclear weapons
Airforce withheld nuclear mishap
Learn the basics about nuclear weapons here
Nuclearism – look at it in new ways
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto
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TFF Director Prof. Jan Oberg is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
Go to Original – icontact-archive.com
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Dear Jan,
“Few of us can hold on to our real selves long enough to discover the real truths about ourselves and this whirling world to which we cling. This is especially true of men in war. The great god Mars tries to blind us when we enter his realm, and when we leave he gives us a generous cup of Lethe to drink.” (J. Glenn Gray, from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges)
You’ve read the Peace Mask Project’s mind and spirit, along with, hopefully, a great many others who have been trying to avoid “thinking about the unthinkable.” Needless to say, especially with the fragile state of world affairs, such avoidance has become yet another example of blissful ignorance. While still struggling with the conundrum of Peace Mask East Asia: Japan Korea China, we have been invited by Professor Ikuro Anzai, Honorary Director of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, to create a Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Mask Project (possibly a Memorial or, more appropriately, Living Memorial) for the survivors. Many of these individuals are from countries other than Japan, including the U.S., Korea and China. Known in Japanese as the Hibakusha Peace Mask Project, the final goal would be to create a quiet, peaceful, dimmed space of reflection, a large room containing an installation of 100 or more softly-illuminated Peace Masks. These facial impressions would be made of the first generation (Issei) survivors and their descendants, Nisei and Sansei, 2nd and 3rd generations, with the hope for them and for our future. Three Hibakusha Peace Masks have already been created. The completed 100, would appear along with the names of all the known survivors since 1945, more than 460,000 recorded-individuals. Currently, over 183,000 Issei (initial) hibakusha are living in Japan and other countries. Such an installation would either be permanently constructed in a country outside of Japan or would travel to a selection of countries to remind humankind of its most essential challenge.
So, I write to thank you for your well-expressed and compelling reminder that our self-deceptions sleep with us. As we move towards yet another night of foolish disregard, another night when 15,000 “angels of devastation” will share our rest.
How is it that we continue to do this?
Robert