Op-ed
on the Bunker Buster | May 2005
I
thought the world was getting better. This administration
is determined to prove me wrong.
Congress
to vote this month on a new generation of nuclear
weapons. What is to be done?
by
Mary Babic
Truthfully,
I thought it was over. I believed that life was just
getting better for all of us; that history was akin
to progress, an upward move.
It
was a gift of naiveté, the result of growing
up in a strange era, when all signs pointed toward
things getting better. It just made sense -- look
at the last century, and you realize you’d probably
be dead in another age: antibiotics, vaccines, child
labor laws, reliable birth control, minimum wage,
desegregation, Title IX, contact lenses, the end of
the Vietnam war, tampons, washing machines…
And
then — the end of the Cold War. And then –
the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons. The huge
sigh of relief as we were finally able to contain
and shrink the arsenal of weapons that could, and
seemingly would, put an end of all of us. Really.
My parents were alive to see what they did to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki –people screaming in the streets,
children dying of cancer years and years later, miles
of rubble and clouds of radioactive waste. They knew,
and I learned to know, that these were weapons that
really did have the potential to leave every one of
us standing alone and naked – if we were lucky.
But
then – that threat was taken away. My parents
would be alive to see these weapons wrapped up, put
away, the finger off the trigger and their children
and grandchildren safe from this threat at least.
Because,
I thought, we had learned. We had learned that the
only way to prevent nuclear war was to prevent nuclear
weapons. And so the world would improve a little more
– more progress, more peace.
Well,
to say that the last five years have proved me wrong
is an understatement. Surely things have happened
that have opened my eyes and broken my heart: 9/11
brought war to my country. In 2004, a majority of
my country’s citizens voted to reelect a man
who not only seems opposed to peace and progress,
but who seems determined to exploit the American passion
for piety and freedom for cynical and self-serving
ends.
So,
I’m a little wiser, and a lot less hopeful.
But is it really so bad that I should have expected
that my beloved country would decide to start building
a new generation of nuclear weapons? Have we really
fallen into such a downward spiral that we so quickly
regard it as acceptable to add to the vast arsenal
of nuclear weapons we already have?
Because
that’s what’s happening. The administration
has requested $8.5 million for research on a new,
“bunker busting” nuclear weapon. A weapon
that they believe would be more “usable”
than other nuclear weapons; a weapon that would be
more powerful than conventional weapons aimed at burrowing
into the ground and destroying underground bunkers.
It’s
astonishing on so many levels that it’s hard
to believe. For one, that we would seek to find a
way to make it easier to use a nuclear weapon. They
contend that this new bomb can accomplish this task
with a minimum of “collateral damage,”
also known in plain language as loss of human life.
The
idea that any nuke could be used without harming many
people is a foolhardy and dangerous. It’s simply
not possible. As the Federation of American Scientists
has noted, even if a nuclear bomb burrows down, it
still lands on the ground; and those meters of rock
would do nothing to contain the radioactivity. Indeed,
it would generate a huge cloud of radioactivity that
would spread over hundreds of square miles. The result
to the human population? Hundreds of thousands of
deaths. Not to mention that U.S. troops stationed
nearby, or called in afterwards, would also face risks
of radiation poisoning – death, longterm illness,
serious trauma among them.
For
another, it’s unlikely the damn thing would
even work as promised. Even if the bunker buster were
able to dig further into the ground than a conventional
weapon (which is debatable), it simply can’t
dig down as far as the people burying things in the
first place. If we make a weapon that can destroy
things buried under 300 meters of rock, what are those
people going to do? Bury them even deeper. They’re
already doing so; wouldn’t you? By the time
we get around to deploying a bunker buster, it’s
going to be useless.
Further,
developing this weapon does absolutely nothing about
reducing the most terrifying and likely threat –
that terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weapons
or materials and use them. At a time when we should
be channeling most of our resources toward locating,
securing, and tying up every last bit of nuclear material,
we’re instead figuring out how to build newer
better bombs.
What’s
more, if the biggest threats to us today are terrorists
and extremist ideologies, this is surely barking up
the wrong tree. New nuclear weapons serve no practical
role in countering the threats from extremists who
are willing to use terrorist tactics. You can’t
nuke a network or an extremist ideology.
Finally,
just who do we think we are? I understand that some
of us think we’re the boss of them. But if we
are, we need to lead by example, not by making the
biggest gun even bigger. A move to develop more nukes
throws off the whole fragile balance of an international
commitment to nonproliferation. The vast majority
of the world’s nations have agreed, under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to forswear the
development of nuclear weapons in exchange for a pledge
by the major nuclear weapons states to reduce and
eventually eliminate their own arsenals. The parties
to the treaty are meeting right now in New York, hopefully
to re-affirm their commitments under the treaty.
Not
only does the plan to research new nukes violate the
spirit of the agreement – it is in fact likely
to strengthen the arguments of hardliners in other
countries who want to get their own nuclear weapons.
At
the end of the day, I do continue to cling to some
bit of hope. And that’s this: last year, Congress
was wise enough – farsighted enough, principled
and brave – to deny funds to the nuclear bunker
buster. There was enough sanity on the Hill. There
was enough uproar.
We
need to do it again. Let them know that it is not
okay to start the arms race again. It can only lead
to disaster. Really.
