[E-rundbrief] Info 705 - Chomsky: Hiroshima Day in Vienna

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 705 - Noam Chomsky (USA): Hiroshima Day in Vienna 
2008. Message.

Bad Ischl, 6.8.2008

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Hiroshima Day in Vienna

Noam Chomsky

2008

Not far from the site of this gathering, plans are underway to establish 
ballistic missile defense systems, with the understanding that they 
increase the threat of terminal nuclear war. It is recognized on all 
sides that BMD is an offensive weapon, an "enabler of US action," US 
strategic analysts explain: "It is a tool for global dominance," for 
"preserving Americas ability to wield power abroad," undermining 
deterrence. That is why Washingtons program to establish BMD sites in 
the Czech Republic and Poland at once led Russia to enhance its 
offensive military capacity and to threaten to withdraw from treaties on 
conventional forces and disarmament. Leading US strategic analysts 
recognize that these systems cannot possibly be accepted by Russian 
planners, just as the US would never tolerate Russian BMD sites in 
Canada or Mexico.

In recent weeks India has been applauded for agreeing to a nuclear pact 
with the US that would effectively authorize its development of nuclear 
weapons outside the bounds of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, with US 
assistance in nuclear programs along with other rewards -- in particular, 
to US firms eager to enter the Indian market for nuclear and weapons 
development, and ample payoffs to Indian parliamentarians who signed on. 
Michael Krepon, a leading US specialist on nuclear threats, observed 
that Washingtons decision to "place profits ahead of nonproliferation" 
could mean the end of the NPT if others follow its lead, sharply 
increasing the threat of nuclear war.

At the same time, another state that has defied the NPT with Western 
support, Israel, conducted large-scale military maneuvers to prepare for 
bombing Iran, while the prominent Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote 
in the New York Times that Iran should welcome Israeli bombing, because 
the alternative will be an Israeli nuclear attack. The call is echoed in 
radical nationalist (so-called "neoconservative") circles in the United 
States, who urge that the US undertake this necessary task.

In June, the US Congress came close to passing a resolution, strongly 
supported by the Israeli lobby, virtually calling for a blockade of Iran 
-- an act of war that could have set off a conflagration that is dreaded 
in the region and around the world. Pressures from the popular anti-war 
movements succeeded in blocking this effort, but others are likely to 
follow.

It is close to miraculous that the human species has not succeeded in 
destroying itself since the inauguration of the atomic age. The most 
respected strategic analysts warn of "Apocalypse soon" and "ultimate 
doom" if state policies continue on their present course. Events 
proceeding regularly before our eyes underscore the validity of their 
concerns. This grim commemoration of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki crimes 
should serve as a call to action. Nuclear weapons must be eliminated 
from the face of the earth, before it is too late.

http://www.hiroshima.at/

http://www.chomsky.info/

-- 

     Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
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