8-08-08, 9:57 am

Original source: The Guardian (Australia)


Commemorations of the August 1945 nuclear bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are occasions when the demand is raised for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. Hiroshima is a stark reminder of the devastation that weapons of mass destruction cause and a time to demand an end to the terror of nuclear annihilation.

Nuclear weapons are the only weapons capable of destroying civilization and the human species.

Nuclear weapons have not disappeared. The United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan, India and DPRK together still have more than 28,000 nuclear weapons. Of these, 3,500 are on hair-trigger alert, ready to be fired in moments, creating an appalling danger of an accidental nuclear exchange.

Billions of dollars are spent on nuclear weapons and associated war machines while huge numbers of people die of hunger.

Australia is directly involved through its alliance with the United States and the US bases here, especially the ballistic missile launch detection system at Pine Gap. Australia is also involved through the export of uranium.

The threat of catastrophe

The US is upgrading its nuclear arsenal. But the more the US relies on nuclear weapons, the more other countries will do so too. The more nuclear weapons in the world, the more likely they will end up in the hands of terrorists.

The longer nations rely on nuclear weapons, the more likely it is that they will be used, by accident or design. Nuclear superiority is useless when nuclear weapons can fall into the hands of terrorist groups. Then even great and powerful states face nuclear devastation by far weaker opponents.

Nuclear weapons drain resources from other more productive uses. The United States continues to spend about US$30 billion every year on research, development and maintenance of its nuclear arsenal. All this represents lost opportunities for improving the health, education and welfare of the people of the world.

Immoral, illegal and dangerous

'I would characterize current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. The risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high.

'Far from reducing these risks, the Bush administration has signaled that it is committed to keeping the US nuclear arsenal as a mainstay of its military power — a commitment that is simultaneously eroding the international norms that have limited the spread of nuclear weapons and fissile materials for 50 years.'

These are the words of Robert McNamara in 2005, US Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 and President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981.

'The United States has never endorsed the policy of ‘no first use’ …. We have been and remain prepared to initiate the use of nuclear weapons-by the decision of one person, the President, against either a nuclear or non-nuclear enemy whenever we believe it is in our interest to do so…'

The Canberra Commission

In Japan, just before visiting Hiroshima, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the formation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission.

He wrote in the guest book at the Hiroshima Museum: 'Let the world resolve afresh from the ashes of this city to work together for the common mission of peace for this Asia-Pacific century, and for a world where one day nuclear weapons are no more.'

While any effort to abolish nuclear weapons is welcome, the Commission will not report until late 2009. This may delay Australian support for other important initiatives such as British and Norwegian studies of how full-scale nuclear disarmament can be technically verified, which is critical for nuclear abolition.

The proposal will not move countries such as Israel, Pakistan or India towards nuclear disarmament. There is also a contradiction between the work of the Commission and Australia’s sales of uranium.

Australia should be urging the US to reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons. And it is here that the real problems arise. The United States is not cutting its nuclear weapons. Instead it has developed more sophisticated and powerful bombs and is now developing mini-nukes, bunker busters and nuclear weapons for space.

The Rudd government will clearly do nothing that seriously offends the White House and the independence and effectiveness of the Commission are therefore open to serious doubt.

First steps towards a nuclear-free world

As the new International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) says, the first steps towards abolition should be:

Negotiate: Almost all countries in the world want talks to reach a treaty which would prohibit the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat and use of nuclear weapons. It can be done. We have treaties to ban landmines, chemical and biological weapons so why not a Nuclear Weapons Convention?

No new weapons: All the nuclear weapons states must agree to immediately stop upgrading, modernizing and testing new nuclear weapons.

Reduce the chance of use: Take nuclear weapons off high alert. This will greatly decrease the chance of accidents. Every nuclear weapon state must pledge never to use nuclear weapons first.

Nuclear weapon free zones should be expanded all round the world.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On August 6, 1945, at 8:15am Japanese time, a United States B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb, named 'Little Boy', on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. More than four square miles (10.5 square kilometers) of the city were instantly and completely devastated. Ninety thousand people were killed instantly and 69,000 injured.

Three days later, on August 9, at 11:02am, another B-29 dropped the 'Fat Man' nuclear bomb on another Japanese city, Nagasaki, totally destroying one and a half square miles (4 square kilometers) of the city, killing 80,000 men, women and children and injuring 75,000 more.

By the end of 1945, over 145,000 people had died in Hiroshima. Deaths among survivors of the bombings have continued over the years due primarily to the effects of radiation exposure.

The bombs were dropped on cities which had been quarantined from previous US attacks in order to test the full effects of a uranium bomb in Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb in Nagasaki.

They were also intended to intimidate the then Soviet Union. In an act of terrorist mass murder, the first shot in the coming Cold War cost 214,000 lives.

The orthodox view that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were incinerated to end World War 2 and save American lives is a lie that cannot cover up the cold blooded barbarity of these acts.