As only nation to be A-bombed,
Japan should urge U.S. to do everything in its power
to eliminate nuclear weapons
so that such tragedy cannot be repeated
The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs in August 1945 contained a warning of potential nuclear disaster that the U.S. government failed to heed. Yet J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," immediately understood the awful significance of his creation, and he worked to neutralize its power. In 1945 he spoke publicly of the dangers associated with a nuclear arms race, and in 1946 he worked secretly to design the
State Department's plan for the international control of atomic energy. In the spring of 1946 he urged congress to look over the horizon to a terrifying nuclear future. Warning senators that eventually a few men could sneak a small atomic weapon into New York City and destroy it, he urged nuclear disarmament.
On September 11th hijackers turned commercial aircraft into weapons of
mass destruction. At some future time they might use spent nuclear reactor
fuel wrapped in explosives. And if they are determined to sacrifice their
own lives, the assassins will often achieve a high degree of success. The
hard truth, as Israel's recent history demonstrates, is that there is
no certain defense against suicide bombers.
Oddly enough, America's strongest line of defense in such a fragile, interdependent
world is something as ephemeral as our national character and reputation.
For this reason September 11th was the ultimate failure of our foreign
policy. For too many years now we have squandered our reputation for generosity
and wisdom that our post World War II democratic reconstruction of Germany
and Japan help us to build.
Having achieved those worthy successes in Europe and Asia our government chose to act with imperial disregard for democratic principles in the Third World. We fought the Cold War in Third World battlefields; the list of our interventions is staggering: Korea, Iran, Vietnam, Guatemala, the Congo, Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, and, of course, all over the Middle East. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, our leaders have too often pursued a unilateral foreign policy based on America's position as "the world's only superpower."
But America needs a radically new foreign policy. The false and destructive
Cold War dichotomy between realism and idealism must be abandoned. No foreign
policy devoid of high moral principles is realistic in today's interdependent
world. Even if our victory in Afghanistan leads to a viable nation, it
will do little to protect us if we once again become complicit with authoritarian
regimes that oppress their own people. We need a wise foreign policy that
addresses the underlying issues that foster suicidal rage.
We need to go back as a nation to where we were in 1945 -- before Hiroshima,
before we took the road to a permanently nuclear armed nation. Most Americans
have no memory of the designs Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Dealers had for
postwar American foreign policy. Human rights, self-determination, an end
to colonization in the developing world, nuclear disarmament, international
law, the World Court, the United Nations -- these were all ideas of the
progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
We need to return to this Rooseveltian vision of a foreign policy based
on human rights. We need to encourage the weak and afflicted to take their
grievances to the United Nations, the World Court and the new International
Criminal Court. And that means we too must abide by U.N. and World Court
decisions.
We must cooperate with the world -- and not just dominate it with dollars,
cruise missile diplomacy and secret military courts. The billions our government
wants to spend on missile defense should instead be invested to promote
peace agreements and meet basic human needs in the world's poorest societies.
And right now, we need to end our complicity with nuclear weapons. They can both destroy cities and they can corrode civilizations. Oppenheimer made this point when he wrote that the inevitable secrecy nuclear weapons encourage combined with their unparalleled coercive force, were inevitably destructive to any free society. George Kennan, the diplomat who conceived of the containment policy, recalled that the "father of the atomic bomb" convinced him as early as 1946 that "the whole idea that you could achieve anything of a positive nature by brandishing nuclear weapons seemed preposterous."
In this time of annual renewal, Americans should demand that their government
make radical changes to its foreign policy. And our Japanese allies should
help by insisting that government of the United States acts on the warning
implicit in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We need to begin
to dismantle our nuclear arsenal and negotiate an international treaty
that bans the development and possession of such weapons. That would give
all our children the best chance of surviving the twenty-first century.
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