Month: November 2017

Conservative perspectives on nuclear weapons issues

The previous post had a set of resources on nuclear weapons issues.  Historically, nuclear weapons issues have blurred lines between the political left and the political right in the U.S..  Recently, however, there have been sharper divides, and the organizations listed in the previous post tend towards the views of the current political left, which is more aligned with a disarmament agenda.

If you are seeking conservative perspectives, the best resources are often the conservative ‘think tanks.’ For example, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.

Also, seek writing from publications like the National Review and the American Conservative.  Often it helps to search on a specific issue, e.g. the Iran Nuclear Deal or nuclear weapons modernization.

Finally, you can get some material that takes a more conservative point of view from our current government, e.g. on this page on the Nuclear Posture Review.

Nuclear weapons resources – emphasis on anti-nuclear standpoints

To help with your final letter/paper, here are links to some resources that may be useful.  In the debates over nuclear weapons, there are very few organizations out there that take as a part of their mission to actively promote nuclear weapons, thus most of the resources have somewhat of an anti-nuclear flavor, to varying degrees.

Here are several places where you can get solid information about nuclear arsenals of the world, current US nuclear policy issues, and nuclear disarmament.  Consider looking into major funding sources for some of these to see what political and economic biases might be involved if that is relevant for your argumentation.

1) Federation of American Scientists  This is a non-partisan research group that collects information on nuclear arsenals and publishes commentary and reviews with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (see below).

2) Bulletin of Atomic Scientists  This is a publication and group that tracks nuclear weapons safety issues and generally takes an anti-nuclear stance, but usually with high quality factual information.

3) Union of Concerned Scientists A lobby and advocacy organization that generally seeks disarmament and improved nuclear weapons safety.

4) Arms Control Association Another non-partisan information and nuclear disarmament advocacy organization.  Good source of “fact sheets” on nuclear arsenals.

5) Nuclear Threat Initiative and related World Institute for Nuclear Security these are non-partisan independent groups that collaborate with governments and the UN to secure nuclear materials and promote nuclear safety.

6) Here are some organizations that are explicitly and wholly dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons:  ICAN (recent Nobel Peace Prize winner), Global Zero (related to a documentary film of the same name), Ploughshares Fund (which funds some of the organizations above).

7) Finally, the United Nations webpages and the IAEA webpages are excellent resources.

Top general says he’d push back against ‘illegal’ nuclear strike order

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/politics/air-force-general-john-hyten-nuclear-strike-donald-trump/index.html

The leading nuclear U.S. Commander issued a statement saying how he would not allow the president to allow an illegal use of firing nukes.  There are a number of things that must be met in order to allow the lawful use of nukes that were set up by the Pentagon.  According to the commander the U.S. has many of options that are as successful as nukes in eliminating foreign threats.

-Andrew Harris

Japanese Balloon Attack Almost Interrupted Building First Atomic Bombs

I found this article a while back, while researching the plutonium processing at the Hanford site in 1945. Apparently, the Japanese released thousands of airborne incendiary bombs in effort to aimlessly wreak havoc on the US mainland. “On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman, Elsie Winters Mitchell, and five children were killed by a bomb near Gearhart Mountain in southern Oregon, the only known civilian deaths in the continental United States in the war.”(Shurkin). One of these balloons in particular, didn’t explode, but draped itself over a power line and momentarily cut power to the Hanford plant, forcing a coal fired generator to kick on in order to avert a meltdown disaster. The aimless targeting of primitive balloon based weapons, versus the continued onslaught of US military forces on the Japanese mainland and eventual dropping of atomic weapons, sheds light on the escalating fears of prolonged war for both sides. If this truly is a game of ethics, then these balloons show that both sides were willing to do whatever it took to end the war with fear instead of firepower.

Article is here: https://www.insidescience.org/news/japanese-balloon-attack-almost-interrupted-building-first-atomic-bombs