The Nuclear Danger

During the past three years, as George Bush has been scaring us with the thought that states such as Iraq, Iran, or North Korea might be acquiring nuclear weapons, I couldn’t help but wonder what the fuss was all about. Even if it had been proven before the current war that Iraq did have nuclear weapons, I still would have opposed the war. It simply is not America’s role to rule the world and enforce the wishes of the President of the United States.

And if the U.S. government would pay more attention to finding ways to defend America, and less attention to other people’s business, we probably wouldn’t have to worry what weapons any nation possesses.

I’ve wondered as well why no one on television has bothered to point out that the biggest stockpiler of nuclear weapons has been America itself. Finally, however, we have a very good article summarizing the hypocrisy in America’s position on WMDs. It is an editorial in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald. The article also deals with the dangers presented by Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

George Bush has been hammering home the point that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran is a signatory to, prohibits Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But that same treaty requires the United States (and other nuclear powers) to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. The U.S. has steadfastly refused to obey the treaty – and, in fact, is developing new nuclear weapons.

But then consistency and integrity have never been George Bush’s strong points.

Iranian Oil

Whenever the Iranians protest that their nuclear program is solely for the production of nuclear energy, and not nuclear weapons, someone on TV is sure to scoff that the Iranians produce far more oil than the country can use. So what do they need with nuclear energy?

Well, let’s see. General Motors produces far more cars than its officers, shareholders, and employees can drive. So why does it produce so many cars? Because it can sell them on the open market and put money in the pockets of all those officers, shareholders, and employees.

In the same way, if Iran can utilize nuclear energy for its own electricity needs, it will have more oil to sell in the world market – putting more money in the pockets of all those Mullahs, Imams, and other assorted Persians.

Book Woes

During the past couple of years I have several times committed an author’s #1 faux pas: I have mentioned publicly that I’m in the process of writing a book called The War Racket – cataloging the lies and promises the U.S. government has told over the past century to drag us into war after war after war.

Thus I administered to myself the Kiss of Death – meaning that by announcing a forthcoming book I jinxed myself and so, needless to say, the project has been derailed. I started with World War I, amassed a great deal of research, and then wrote that "chapter." It turned out to be more than half the length of a manageable book. I’m currently working on World War II, which promises to be equally as long.

Publication of the book has been delayed not just by the overwhelming amount of material I’ve amassed – all of which I find to be intensely interesting – but also by the fact that I’ve been sidetracked into some very exciting new projects, which I’ll be in a position to announce in the near future. (I’ve learned my lesson about announcing things in advance.)

Since several people have written to me over the past few months to inquire about the progress of The War Racket, I thought I’d better mention here that the current projected year of publication is 2022.

March 12, 2005