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On
August 20, the US fired cruise missiles at supposed "terrorist" sites in
The Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the bombings of US embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania. These missile attacks, conveniently timed
to distract attention from President Clinton's unfolding sex scandal, destroyed
a pharmaceutical plant in The Sudan, recklessly risked alarming Pakistan
into thinking it was under nuclear missile attack from India (US missiles
were fired over Pakistan from the direction of India), and
delivered an intact, unexploded cruise missile onto Pakistani soil, which
Pakistani weapons designers called "a gift from God." As in any attack,
people were killed, although very few in the US know how many or even care.
One significant but overlooked result
of the August 20 cruise missile attacks is that it further entrenches the
US strategy of unilaterally firing missiles at whatever country happens
to be the "threat-of-the-week".
Such a cavalier and arrogant unleashing
of violence can be traced back many years. These current attacks,
however, seem to be paving the way for the increased use of Trident
to accomplish the dirty work of killing and wounding. |
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Indeed,
the next time missiles are launched, they very well may be nuclear-armed
and fired from Trident submarines. Despite the commonly-held
assumption that Trident is "only" a "deterrent" that wards off nuclear
attacks from other nuclear powers, the next time missiles burst into the
sky, they may be fired first, at a non-nuclear country, from
the stealthy missile platform of a Trident submarine.
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With the cruise missile attacks
on The Sudan and Afghanistan, as well as earlier ones on Iraq, US citizens
are becoming accustomed to this kind of violence .
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This seems at first like a far-fetched
thesis. There is, however, evidence that demonstrates the assertion
that the Pentagon may be grooming Trident to be a "nuclear expeditionary
force," that is, a nuclear force aimed at targets other than those in
the former Soviet Union.
This evidence is found, first, in the
precedents in US military history; second, in the Navy's own plans for
converting four older Tridents to carry Tomahawk cruise missiles; and third, |
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in
recent nuclear policy statements, which further open the door to the use
of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear powers.
Precedents
Deciding to use Trident submarines
and missiles against non-nuclear targets seems to be a great departure
from the stated policy of using Trident to deter a Russian nuclear attack.
Indeed, it is shocking and horrifying to think of unleashing such indiscriminate
and unmerciful violence against a country like Iraq, Afghanistan, The Sudan,
or even Libya, Iran, Cuba, or North Korea. However, the history of
nuclear weapons demonstrates that countries like these (non-nuclear, third-world)
have found themselves threatened by the US nuclear arsenal. The first
shots in the Cold War between the US and USSR were the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not Moscow and St. Petersberg. In the
Korean war, the US threatened to use nuclear weapons against North Korea,
just as it similarly did in the Vietnam war, threatening Hanoi. There
was talk of using nuclear weapons in the Gulf War too.
The more recent use of cruise
(Continued
on page 7)
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First
Floyd Schmoe Peace Scholarship Awarded |
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In this
issue:
Fall- Winter 1998
******
Celebration at GZ 1
Resistance at Faslane 1
Next Time Missiles Fly 2
Floyd Schmoe 2
Fractal Webs and Chaos 3
Another leaflet 4
Myth of Disarmament 5
Days of Reflection at GZ
6
Thanks to all who helped put this
newsletter together: Jackie Hudson, Elizabeth Roberts, Brian Watson,
Sue Ablao, Tricia Sullivan & Stephen Augustine. |
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Travis-Jo
Cufley, 18, is the first recipient of the Floyd Schmoe Peace Scholarship.
The $500 scholarship was endowed by Ground Zero members, Glen and Karol
Milner, longtime Shoreline peace activists who revere Schmoe and his lifelong
devotion to peace and the alleviation of suffering.
The couple sent out applications earlier
this year to Shorecrest High School, where their children went to high
school. They weren't necessarily looking for valedictorians or student-body
presidents but for a college-bound Shorecrest senior who thought less about
herself or himself than about other people.
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"This
award will be presented to someone who reminds us that true leadership
is more than being the loudest of the group or the ability...to control
others," the Milners wrote. "Leadership is work and concern for others."
Cufley has always thought she'd become
a doctor, not the kind with a garage full of Mercedeses but the kind that
joins Doctors Without Borders and works among victims of famine, plague,
natural disasters and war, "so that I can be available to help wherever
I am most needed," Cufley wrote in her application.
Cufley, who'll attend Whitman
(Continued
on page 3)
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