Not So Retro Today

Fewer Americans understand the dangers that nuclear weapons and nuclear war still pose. Few will recall that the peace symbol's original meaning was in support of nuclear disarmament in England. So it's fitting that it was in England yesterday that a new start to controlling nuclear weapons began. See the post below.

Returning to the Path Towards A Nuclear Free World

It's been nearly twenty years since most Americans felt the daily threat of thermonuclear war and the instant end of the world as we know it. With the demise of the Soviet Union, that threat seemed to disappear, but though it diminished, it did not really go away. The U.S. and Russia have enough nukes pointed at each other to destroy both countries, and subsequent studies show the chance of accidental nuclear war is even higher than it was in the 1980s.

Just months before he was killed, President Kennedy fought for and obtained the first treaty between the superpowers that even attempted to slow the nuclear arms race, with the nuclear test ban treaty. Other treaties followed, and nuclear weapons were even destroyed. But the Bushites withdrew American participation in such international treaties, including the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and made plans for more nukes.

So it was an historic step--but more than that, a vital step--that President Obama took yesterday in his meeting with the Russian president. You probably didn't hear about it, because after decades of one kind of denial, we're deep into another kind. We don't even know we're still in danger. We'd rather twitter about the Queen's new Ipod.

So for the record, there is this excerpt from the joint statement. Read it and rejoice:

As leaders of the two largest nuclear weapons states, we agreed to work together to fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world. We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world, while recognizing that this long-term goal will require a new emphasis on arms control and conflict resolution measures, and their full implementation by all concerned nations. We agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in our strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty. We are instructing our negotiators to start talks immediately on this new treaty and to report on results achieved in working out the new agreement by July.

Sputnik at 50

On the legacy of Sputnik at 50: here.

We Do Forget

It would be helpful if the cliches and pronouncements were true, that horrific events like the Holocaust or Hiroshima and Nagasaki "will never be forgotten." But in terms of their weight, import and meaning, both factually and emotionally, they are forgotten. This becomes evident when other Holocausts are ongoing with no effective effort to stop them (as arguably is happening now in Darfur and Burma, for instance) or when policies are being pursued that would be universally condemned as reckless and horrifying, if those great lessons were truly remembered.

I've written before about the horrors of nuclear bombs, specifically in relation to the casually mentioned nuking of Iran. But the Iran threat just won't go away, and although less is being said about the U.S. using nuclear weapons against Iran, recent (and disturbingly ignored) statements and signals from the Bush White House suggest an attack is still "on the table."

It is a particularly dangerous moment, when the fundamentalist neocon ideology still drives the Bush-Cheny government, and when that government has little power beyond blackmailing Congress to continue the Iraq war and using military power against anyone it chooses. The dirty secret of declining American power is that it is forced more and more to consider, if not rely on, its trump: the world's most obscenely powerful stockpile of nuclear bombs.

But even without nuclear weapons, a sustained air campaign against Iran would turn the tinderbox of the Middle East into a raging fire of regional war, with consequences too long lasting and too extensive and damaging to contemplate.

On the subject of nuclear weapons, a Daily Kos frontpage post today outlined the positions of the leading Democrats running for President, based on questionaires. A more extensive treatment is available online from the Council for a Livable World.