If “war made the state and the state made war,” then the state, as currently perceived, at least by those besotted with military power, is the problem. By Robert C. Koehler An enormous flash, a mushroom cloud, multi-thousands of human beings dead. We win! Nuclear weapons won’t go away, the cynics—the souls in despair—tell us. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. You can’t, as Gen. James E. Cartwright, former head of U.S. Strategic Command, once put it, “un-invent nuclear weapons.” So apparently we’re stuck with them until the “big oops” happens and humanity becomes extinct. Until then: […]
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Abolishing Nuclear Weapons – No Utopian Dream
By Leonard Eiger & Glen Milner January 28, 2024 The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect three years ago (on January 22, 2021) making nuclear weapons illegal under international law for the first time in history. The TPNW is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, with the goal of leading towards their total elimination. It specifically prohibits countries from producing, testing, acquiring, possessing or stockpiling nuclear weapons. It also outlaws the transfer of the weapons and forbids signatories from allowing any nuclear explosive device to be stationed, installed or deployed […]
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After 78 years can we put the nuclear genie back in the lamp?
By Leonard Eiger July 16th marks the day 78 years ago when the United States let the nuclear genie out of the lamp. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 AM at the Alamogordo Test Range, on the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, in the test named Trinity, Manhattan Project scientists detonated the experimental device known as the “Gadget,” creating a light “brighter than a thousand suns.” A mere 6 kilogram (13.2 pound) sphere of plutonium, compressed to supercriticality by the surrounding high explosives, created an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT (20 Kilotons). Was this, as thought […]
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Following The Golden Rule
By Leonard Eiger For most of humanity’s recorded time on Earth people have tried to follow the Golden Rule, which is essentially the principle of treating others as we would like to be treated. And yet today it seems that in far too many ways and situations this fundamental axiom has been turned on its head, especially when it comes to relations among nations. Racism, xenophobia, militarism, and their ultimate manifestation – nuclear weapons – rule the day as a symbol and tool of power in many nations. As for the United States, we have twisted the Golden Rule, expecting […]
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From nuclear sub commander to nuclear weapons abolitionist
Only way to prevent their use, says Tom Rogers – Get rid of them By Patrick Mazza; Originally published in The Raven; October 7, 2022; https://theraven.substack.com/p/from-nuclear-sub-commander-to-nuclear From handling nuclear weapons to protesting them Tom Rogers knows his way around a nuclear weapon. At various points of his career as a U.S. Navy submarine officer, he oversaw safety and security of nuclear weapons on board, conducted disaster drills, and was part of the team that would authenticate orders to use them. Rising to captain a sub, he was responsible for the whole picture. Later in his career, Rogers began to raise […]
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