Dangerous Times
The world needs wisdom now. Each day we are moving closer to the possibilities of nuclear devastation. Over the last few days, we have witnessed the irresponsible decision by speaker, Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan. Her insistence on the trip seemed designed to provoke China. In response China launched a series of military drills including hypersonic missiles, naval blockade simulations and stealth bombers.
Meanwhile our only response to the catastrophe in Ukraine is to increase the number and kinds of weapons we are willing to send.
Last week the increased shelling around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant reawakened fears of the possibility of another kind of nuclear disaster. Of special concern are the six pressurized water reactors being hit by rockets. Such an explosion could contaminate territory for thousands of miles.
The danger to all life posed by nuclear weapons and reactors is especially critical as the world moves toward greater levels of armed conflict. For more than 50 years the United States has refused to pledge a “no first strike” policy. Of the major nuclear powers, only China and India have taken this step. While the former Soviet Union did commit to “no first use,” Russia repudiated this in 1993 and Putin has not so subtly hinted at his willingness to use such weapons.
The dangers we face are accentuated further by two notions within the U.S. government. First, since the beginnings of the “war on terror” the US has justified and implemented a policy of “preemptive warfare.” This means that the US will attack another nation to prevent them from attacking us first. Thus, we justified the invasion of Iraq and then Afghanistan. Biden’s increasingly anti-Russian rhetoric, casting the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to create US dominance, can only accelerate this position.
Second, the US has systematically been developing the idea of “limited” nuclear war. We have designed, armed, and mounted “tactical” nuclear weapons. During the recent tension with China, the ships of the US Pacific fleet carried such devices. Since 2020 the submarine fleet has been so armed.
Creating a framework that nuclear weapons are justified and containable is idiocy. Yet these ideas ungirded the actions of Trump and now Biden. Nor are they alone in thinking what should be unthinkable. Countries long committed to the reduction of nuclear arms are again rearming and expanding their budgets. In 2022 the global investment in weapons and mechanisms of death passed $2 trillion for the first time in history.
The move toward accelerating military force has gone almost completely unchallenged. The US Senate, a body that can agree on almost nothing, voted overwhelmingly for increasing military budgets, including a steady flow of weapons to Ukraine. The U.S. spends more on defense than the next nine nations listed by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its report, “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2021”—this includes China, India, the UK, Russia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea.
Those of us who believe in the possibilities of a world based on justice, on ways of living that support and enhance life, must find new, creative, and effective ways to challenge this kind of destructive thinking. We have seen the power of people to challenge the nuclear industry in the past. We need the same imagination and courage today.