A Strategy to Contain Nuclear Proliferation: Peace

[Tom Rinaldo]

This has become my annual Christmas Day post. May the day come when I feel no need to post this:

Some times the obvious must be stated, and this seems to be one of those times. It may almost be too simple to easily grasp; War doesn't prevent War, Peace does. There may be times when War can not be prevented, but War is most effectively prevented by waging Peace. War inflames hatred, and hatred fuels War. Peace promotes understanding, and understanding furthers Peace. This is a good time to review these basics, because we are steadily moving toward war with Iran, ostensibly to contain nuclear proliferation.

War will never contain nuclear proliferation, just like Luddite sabotage of cotton mills in early 19th Century England could not contain industrialization. The prevailing logic that drove the industrial age could not be stemmed by violence. Individual factories could be and were destroyed, but never the knowledge that advanced the technology. It was never a possibility. Had luddites somehow managed to imprison or assassinate every individual with the knowledge needed to build textile machines, those machines would have been invented again. That's because every invention springs from a broad foundation of shared fundamental knowledge, but far more important, that's because the logic then driving industrialization was historically irresistible. Conditions were ripe for the Industrial Revolution. And conditions are now ripe for nuclear proliferation.

A military strike against alleged Iranian proto type nuclear weapons facilities may set back such programs by a number of years. People differ on the exact number of years, but it is always estimated in single digits. If Iran were the only nuclear threat facing America, and if our collective anticipated future life span was also estimated in single digits, a preemptive military strike on Iran might resolve this potential threat. But how much comfort can the parent of a First Grader take in hoping that military action against Iran now will delay a nuclear threat from Iran until their child enters Ninth Grade? That's assuming of course that an American military strike against Iran didn't push Islamic extremists in Pakistan to seize nuclear weapons already inside that unstable nation, to use against America for once again attacking another Islamic nation.

The nuclear Genie isn't returning to his bottle anytime soon. The information needed to create nuclear weapons is spreading, not vanishing. The technology needed to create nuclear weapons is becoming cheaper, not more expensive. Stockpiles of radioactive materials that can be enriched to weapons grade yield are growing not shrinking. The geographic distribution of those stockpiles is expanding, not consolidating. But all of that is secondary to the logic currently driving nuclear proliferation, an inevitable by product of a poison stew of suspicion, hatred, pride and fear. Conflict is the fuel that boils that stew. Conflict can not contain it. Only Peace can contain it.

Peace comes in many forms. There is warm Peace and cold Peace. There is Peace that is wholeheartedly embraced, and Peace that is grudgingly accepted. There is Peace based on close cooperation, and there is Peace based on mutual deterrence. Many types of Peace, each with it's time and place, but what all Peace has in common is the lack of War. Conflict and War are driving Nuclear Proliferation. To the extent that conflicts intensify, nuclear proliferation will intensify also. Like a weed we can attack it in one place, but when winds of war blow strong, it's seeds blow far and wide.

[ixion]

1. Peace is the only REAL strategy for creating a better world.

The rest is simply a handout to the M.I.C.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. As Gandhi said..

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy.” - Gandhi

There are always "good" reasons for war. But, it is always the people, the ordinary people, who have no say in it, that suffer.

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. Ghandi said it very well, as usually he did. n/t