I read all our Peace Studies articles this week while I was getting my hair colored for two hours. As I read the pieces, especially “The Special Significance of Nuclear Weapons”, I experienced a kind of disconnect. Occasionally I would glance in the mirror and see the image of an aluminum foiled person looking back at me. The realization of how detached I was from the reading material made me want to laugh and cry. How strange to be reading about the profound destruction caused by nuclear weapons and the possibility of human annihilation while partaking in a vanity ritual. I felt vulnerable and shallow and in defense joked to myself that at least I would die looking good. It seemed funny in my mind at the moment, but as I kept on reading, the descriptions of people who had survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki came up. Here is one account;
“The sight of the soldiers was more dreadful than the dead people…I came upon… many, burned from the hips up…where the skin had peeled, their flesh was wet and mushy…and they had no faces! Their eyes, noses and mouths had been burned away, and it looked like their ears had melted off. It was hard to tell from front to back”. (71)
Barash and Webel write about the nature of nuclear weapons, matter changed into energy. The Einsteinian equation E=mc2, or simply put for a non-scientific mind, huge amounts of energy released called fusion, is the character of nuclear weapons. The effects of these weapons have been witnessed only on two occasions in history on Hiroshima and Nagasaki perpetrated by the United States. Nikita Khrushchev said that “following a nuclear war, the survivors would envy the dead”. (70) This was reiterated in the accounts of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors. The psychological trauma to the citizenry was devastating, their spirits broken.
Barash and Webel write about the technology of nuclear delivery systems, bombers used as launch platforms, ballistic missiles, missiles able to travel at high speeds of delivery, nuclear submarines, functioning on nuclear energy and carrying nuclear missiles, and cruise missiles, pilotless aircraft that travel at the speed of sound and run lower to the ground making them more difficult to detect. The history and application of nuclear technology funnels into the strategic doctrine of deterrence. It is defined as “the plans that purportedly underlie the accumulation of nuclear weapons, the justifications for their existence, and the expectations as to their use.” (76) We learn exactly what nuclear weapons are, how they are deployed and what their effects are. The US uses deterrence as its method of defense. Any country that would attack the US would be mercilessly attacked back. “The basic premise of deterrence has remained that no country would use nuclear weapons against the other so long as the victim retains the ability to cause unacceptable damage to the attacker.” (77)
Connecting this to Richard Falk’s, “Defining A Just War”, I can use four of the principles of “just war” doctrine, discrimination, proportionality, humanity and necessity to act as a lens to look at deterrence. (136) The strategic deterrence doctrine is based on retaliation. If we were to apply the four principals of “just war” than nuclear weapons couldn’t be an option because they can’t fit into any of the “just war” parameters. The only conclusion is that deterrence is only strategic when it’s based on the principals of keeping human life.
Okay, so I’m trying on new ideas through completely different lenses. I can see the holes in my thinking and it’s okay, I’ll keep trying. I like this process, it’s broadening my perspective but it kind of feels like a mental Jane Fonda workout, “no pain no gain”. I can see how this process of looking helps in my life. My mother called and I was able to see her point of view for about four minutes. Hallelujah!
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