From: Habib Yousafzai <habibyousafzai@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 12:09 PM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Hiroshima's call to sanity
Hiroshima's call to sanity
It was over in half a heartbeat. There was a blinding flash, a new molten sun in the sky, and death everywhere. Steel warped. Concrete melted. People were vaporized, leaving scorched outlines on stone walls and steps. Suddenly, Hiroshima became a flattened, burning grave. And a black rain fell. Days later, Nagasaki too lay in ruins.
Debate rages to this day about the legitimacy of the American atomic attacks that ended the war with Japan that raged from 1941 to 1945. But there is no debating the appalling human cost: more than 200,000 people died, while those who survived faced agonizing radiation sickness, crippling injuries, chronic disease. Never had so much suffering been meted out in an instant.
As the world marks the 65th anniversary of Hiroshima's bombing today, the memory remains a powerful summons to sanity and an accelerated approach to the scrapping of nuclear weapons.
That's a challenge Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has shown scant interest in making a priority. But as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Japan this week, the time is right to "push the pace" of disarmament. "The only way to ensure (nuclear) weapons will never again be used is to eliminate them all," he said.
While that may be wishful thinking, U.S. President Barack Obama encourages it. His vision of a world without nuclear weapons, and his deal with Russia to further cut stockpiles, have buoyed the spirits of the Global Zero campaigners and others. Arsenals have shrunk from 65,000 warheads during the 1947-1991 Cold War to around 20,000, and fewer weapons can be fired at a moment's notice.
Still, the Cold War nuclear club (the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, China) has expanded to include Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea, and Iran may soon be added to the list. While an American/Russian global incineration now seems improbable, the risk of a "local" nuclear war has grown. Even the minor players collectively now have hundreds of warheads -- tempting targets for terrorists.
But the trend isn't set in stone. Many nations that had nuclear weapons or research have given them up. They include Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine. The tide can be turned.
And the Cold War club agreed during the recent UN review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 (the cornerstone of arms control) to "promptly engage" on a further cut in their arsenals, to downgrade the role such weapons play in their military thinking, and to take other steps to halt the spread of weapons.
At 65, The Bomb is due for retirement. Today, we remember why.
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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