Worrying about the MADness

MADness

Soon after 9/11 we saw some discussion and articles about how to reach peaceful accommodation with the extremists. One response, from the other side, said that hatred of us is so vehement that the only possible peaceful solution would be our moving to another planet. World affairs since then, and recent, current, have rather borne that out.

In the News. Seven to ten billion dollars for updating 400 B61 nuclear bombs, more to figure out how to mount the B61 on the F-35. At least another five billion to modernize our W78 and W88 warheads. Top of the News, with an estimated 75 to 400 weapons in his own nuclear arsenal, Israeli PM Netanyahu harasses the American president to define the point after which the U.S. will take military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Military analysis generally focuses on capability not intent, but a state that denies the Holocaust and calls for the death of another nation makes intent also a factor.

Two nuclear weapons, atomic bombs, have been used in war, and they in fact stopped a war; but since experiencing the horrendous results, moral restraints have been in place and mutually assured destruction a psychological deterrent. Once, inevitably, another nuclear weapon is used, moral restraints will disappear. Not unlikely, the inevitable first user may be extremists, terrorists or irrational government. Or preemption.

The Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union was high tension including a time when people were building and stocking bomb shelters, even arming them to protect against neighbors. Fiction such as Alas, Babylon and On the Beach and The Day After kept us mindful of the dangers, cautious and rational. Times are changing, have changed. Not military, political, economic, guided by reason nor tempered by fear, but driven by hatred, the new foe seems beyond irrational, their issues nonnegotiable. Risking political incorrectness, some might say we are seeing religion at its worst.

Others might insist that worst isn’t even yet in sight, that on a bad, worse, worst scale of one to ten, we are only at a three and darkening. That this time will be different: that there will be no nuclear deterrent to suicidal, irrational hatred. That we must update our nuclear arsenal for response. Or preemption.

Or move to another planet.