Tomorrow
60 years ago tomorrow 100,000 people lost their lives in a second. The World entered a new phase of development and world war two was over. Was it right to drop the worlds first atomic bomb? what did this signal? As we approach the worlds first nuclear terrorist bomb, which will surely happen within the next few months or years what can we say about the decision to use nuclear weapons. Firstly did it effect the outcome, of this there can be little doubt, the war was over quicker due to the use of nuclear weapons as at the time no one else had such an arsenal and therefore with all the power and destruction that could be wreaked by using such a weapon led to a quicker ending of the war in the Pacific. But let us not forget that the war in Europe was already over, and this without the need to use nuclear weapons, although some could argue that the fire bombing of Dresden was akin to using such a device. Were lives saved, again one could argue that the indiscriminate destruction of 100,000 men, women and children, led to the saving of millions of other lives, but what a cost. It seems almost like taking a sledge hammer to open a walnut only to find the fragments all over the place and then preceding to eat them.But what terror was put upon the world by the first use of nuclear weapons, both the West and the East in the times of the the Cold War came close to using these weapons, from the famous Bay of Pigs to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the pro nuclear people insisting that the deterrent offered by nuclear weapons had meant that the World had not returned to war in this period, and the anti nuclear people stating that the increase in tensions between nations had been made worse by having nuclear weapons. Now there are treaties in place limiting the use of nuclear weapons although it is doubtful that any side is sticking to these treaties nor will they ever do for once one has something of such power are they ever likely to relinquish that power, one feels not. Also new countries who are new to nuclear power can be seen to be developing a nuclear strategy that must surely include the development of weapons, their argument being that as their neighbours have such power why shouldn't they, these weapons being used as a deterrent rather than as a means to force, but time will tell if this is correct for to be used as a deterrent one side has to strike or attempt to strike first.
Terrorists kill, they kill innocent people as a means to an end. They see the indiscriminate killing of their brothers and want to take the war to the places from which the terror comes. They see it as a legitimate means of getting back. There is a very good article in today's Guardian that highlights this and I would encourage anyone to read it. The birth of 'mere terror' by Geoffrey Wheatcroft. My point is slightly different although I can see where Mr Wheatcroft is coming from, and therefore I think that it is only a matter of time before the terrorists start to use nuclear bombs as this is a way of causing mass panic, mass destruction and as a means to truly force governments to follow the course that the terrorists want. Nail bombs, pipe bombs, suicide bombers all instill an element of panic, they kill but imagine the panic that would ensue if a nuclear bomb was detonated in any city in the world. What would happen? one can only guess at the way the world would react. There would be a drop in the markets, places would be placed out of bounds due to contamination for years rather than weeks, panic would set in with there being a flood of people away from any built up conurbation to the remoteness of the country, there would be mass destabilisation of any power and democracy would have to change, our states of mind would have to change, the death rate would be high and well the long term implications do not bear thinking about.
So 60 years on what have we learnt about the effects of the worlds first use of nuclear weapons, well the main lesson is that they kill vast amounts of people with one strike. Something armies throughout the world have been trying to do, to kill and not be killed. Should we have nuclear weapons, no is the simple answer, but how do we get rid of something that we shouldn't have, you can't just dump them, you can't just blow them up, in fact there is not much you can do with a nuclear weapon once it has been made accept try to dismantle it and hope that the constituent parts don't fall into the wrong hands. In dropping the worlds first bomb the leaders of so called democracies could have brought about their own downfall only they didn't know it at the time, the world waits for the worlds first dirty bomb to be exploded, terror unleashing terror upon the world. I hope it doesn't happen but I have this terrible feeling inside me that it will.
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