Strike while the Iron is Hot

by Rob English

Could it be true that Vladimir Putin’s nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles cannot launch because after years of poor maintenance the ICBMs sit rusted in their silos? Only the world’s Intelligence services can answer that with any degree of certainty, but the rest of us say, and pray, ‘Let them rust!’ because a massive exchange of nuclear missiles between countries would likely result in the extinction of the human race. Several countries have a few hundred such missiles, but the United States and Russia have about five thousand each.

To the good, both countries’ stockpiles have been reduced since their thirty and forty-thousand missile peaks of past decades, but the numbers are still dangerously high. And it is true that flocks of geese, computer errors, and other anomalies have fooled early warning radar systems which have then falsely alerted Russian or American commanders of an enemy nuclear attack. So far, the commanders have reacted professionally and have not launched in mistaken retaliation. This good luck could run out; recall that the Russians lost control of their nuclear power plant at Chernobyl. Yet, though the nuclear missile danger has been great, people at large have remained mainly silent about the need to reduce the numbers of such stockpiles. I believe that the silence arises because humans avoid facing issues that are horrible to consider.

But maybe Vladimir Putin has awakened the world’s public to the need for strategic arms reduction and increased diplomacy toward security agreements that limit the use of nuclear weapons. Because Putin has initiated a land war against Ukraine, the whole world is forced to face the possibility of a nuclear holocaust all over the Earth. Let us assume that Putin will prefer to live and enjoy his vast riches rather than to begin a nuclear exchange that would be suicidal for him.

Should he resolve his war by non-nuclear means, let us acknowledge that we have all escaped from grave danger this Spring, and while the iron is hot in our hearts, let us demand an end to the insanity of nuclear stockpiles on our Earth.

Rob English is a member of People for Animal Rights, a grassroots organization in Central New York.

Contact People for Animal Rights
P.O. Box 3333
Syracuse, NY 13220
(315) 708-4520
peopleforanimalrightsofcny@gmail.com
https://parcny.org/

Photos of sea-city-dawn and explosion-on-the-beach by Tom Fisk and by Pixabay