What
You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter
WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
them up.CounterPunch
Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember,
we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition
of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription
to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find
anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition.
Remember contributions are tax-deductible.Click
here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please:Subscribe
Now!
For most Americans, nuclear weapons
are a distant concern, and deciding what to do about them is
a low priority. As a culture, we are relatively comfortable
possessing nuclear weapons, believing that they are, on balance,
a good security hedge in a dangerous world. We leave it to our
leaders to determine what should be done with these weapons.
But our leaders may be moving in exactly the wrong direction.
Seymour Hersh reported in the April 17, 2006 New Yorker
magazine that the US government is developing plans for the possible
preemptive use of nuclear weapons against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Although George Bush dismissed such reports as "wild speculation,"
he did not deny them. The reports should awaken the American
people to some relevant issues. First, our political and military
leaders are considering the preemptive first-use of nuclear weapons,
an act that would undoubtedly constitute aggressive war and a
crime against humanity. Second, these leaders hold open the
possibility of using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear weapons
state, despite official pledges not to do so. Third, the decision
about whether or not to use nuclear weapons preemptively rests
in the hands of a single individual, the president.
The framers of our Constitution could not have imagined the circumstances
of the Nuclear Age, in which the possibility exists of one leader
triggering a nuclear holocaust, yet they wisely stipulated that
the consent of Congress, the political arm of the people, would
be necessary to initiate any war.
We need an open and vigorous discussion in every village, town
and city about the anti-democratic and anti-Constitutional tendencies
inherent in the presidential control of nuclear weapons. Without
such discussion, we relegate the fate of the country and the
world to the whims of a single individual.
In addition, an equally fundamental question must be confronted
have nuclear weapons increased or decreased our security
as a nation? In today's world, nuclear weapons are a far more
powerful tool in the hands of a weak actor than in the hands
of a powerful state. Thus, Pakistan can deter India and China
can deter the US and Russia. A powerful state, such as the
US, has everything to lose and very little to gain from the possession
of nuclear weapons. This concern isn't being effectively
addressed in the US.
The more the US relies on nuclear weapons, the more likely it
is that other countries will do so as well. The most reasonable
course for the US to take is to provide leadership to bring the
world back from the nuclear precipice by working to achieve global
nuclear disarmament.
An argument can be made that a small number of nuclear weapons
are needed for deterrence until they are all eliminated. But
any threat or use of nuclear weapons for purposes other than
minimum deterrence will certainly encourage other states to seek
their own nuclear arsenals, if only to prevent being bullied
by nuclear weapons states. This is the position that North Korea
and Iran find themselves in today.
Current US nuclear policy favors allies, such as Israel and India,
and threatens perceived enemies, such as Iran and North Korea.
We are already engaged in an aggressive, illegal, protracted
and costly war against Iraq, initiated on the false basis that
it had a nuclear weapons program. Iran, because of its uranium
enrichment, is currently within US gun sights.
There is no conceivable US use of nuclear weapons, with their
powerful and unpredictable consequences, that would not turn
the US into a pariah state. The US engenders animosity by pushing
beyond the limits imposed by minimum deterrence and failing to
take seriously its disarmament obligations under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. It also creates a climate in which
other states may seek to develop nuclear arsenals and in which
these weapons may end up in the hands of terrorists. This should
be a major concern for all Americans because it could lead to
US cities being the targets of nuclear weapons used by extremist
groups.
Polls show that Americans, like most other people in the world,
favor nuclear disarmament. However, as a nation, we neither
press for it nor question the nuclear policies of our government.
But we refrain from such actions at our peril, for a bad decision
involving nuclear weapons could destroy us. Inattention and
apathy leave the weapons and the decision to use them beyond
our reach.
Thus, we continue with nuclear business as usual, drifting toward
the catastrophic day when our policies will lead either to nuclear
weapons again being used by us or, as likely, against us by extremist
organizations that cannot be deterred by threat of retaliation.
We are long past time to bring our nuclear policies back onto
the public agenda and open them to thoughtful public discourse.
David Krieger is the president of the Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation. Find out more at the Foundation's website
and its blog.
Now
Available
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.