Nuclear Weapons

This past Monday, I sent a letter to the Phila Inquirer is response to a column by Charles Krauthammer in Monday's paper. Mr Krauthammer was bashing President Obama's nuclear weapon strategy from the standpoint that by removing the possibility that America would use a nuclear weapon to retaliate for an attack, the president has dropped the protective umbrella that our allies have assumed was the reason that no one has used a nuclear weapon so far. In other words, our potential use of nuclear weapons has acted as a deterrent, and has enabled many of our allies to not pursue their own development of these weapons. Now, since President Obama seems determined to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons on the earth and has indicated that he would only use a nuclear weapon in the most dire of situations, Mr Krauthammer believes that more countries will try to develop their own thereby making the world less safe. I sent the following letter

To the Editor:

Monday's column by Mr. Krauthammer, Folding America's umbrella, is another column by a radical right thinker who believes that America can actually use nuclear weapons in a retaliatory fashion to punish those who would do us harm. Perhaps Mr. Krauthammer should consult a scientist familiar with the destructive capability of today's nuclear weapons before he bandies about his outdated opinion that a nation could actually use one without harming itself and its allies. When will he realize that the use of nuclear weapons is no longer a viable threat to our enemies? Did this threat prevent 9/11? Does it keep Osama Bin Laden from planning new attacks? Has it prevented Iran or Korea from pursuing nuclear capabilities? More than once I have heard that our current enemies are different from the Russians of the Cold War Era in that these new attackers are eager for death; suicide is a way to salvation. If that is true then why would our use of nuclear weapons deter them from attacking?

Nuclear weapons need to be removed from this planet. No one will win a nuclear war. Blasting parts of the middle east to kingdom come will bring about economic and environmental catastrophe for all. I would rather a President who is naive for thinking that someday humankind might realize that killing each other is not the way for lasting peace on earth then a policy that relies on fear and the threat of complete destruction.