Yes, Jacques, but we don’t need more than a few hundred of them for that purpose to be served. Furthermore, we don’t need “tactical” nukes, or “nuclear bunker-busters”, or any such other “low-cost” option, to tempt Presidents, Premiers, or Prime Ministers into actually using the things.

Sure, I agree with that; though I note in passing that tactical nuclear weapons were a pretty obvious deterrence to a conventional invasion of Europe by the USSR. But they’ve passed their window of usefulness.

Got me thinkin’ of:

the Mercedes-Benz Type 300 (chassis codes W186, W188, and W189), often called the Adenauer after Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany at the time. Adenauer used six of these cars during his time as Chancellor.

Adenauer reached an agreement with the USA in 1957 that gave West Germany possession of weapons capable of transporting nuclear warheads. Furthermore, Adenauer pursued nuclear cooperation with other countries with a goal of Germany being able to produce its own nuclear armament.

On March 27, 1952, a package addressed to Chancellor Adenauer exploded in the Munich Police Headquarters, killing one police officer. Two boys who had been paid to send this package by mail had brought it to the attention of the police. Investigations led to people closely related to the Herut Party and the former Irgun organization. The German government kept all proof under seal. Five Israeli suspects identified by French and German investigators were allowed to return to Israel.

Investigations led to people closely related to the Herut Party and the former Irgun organization. The German government kept all proof under seal. Five Israeli suspects identified by French and German investigators were allowed to return to Israel.

One of the participants, Eliezer Sudit, later indicated that the mastermind behind the attempt was Menachem Begin who would later become the Prime Minister of Israel. Begin had been the former commander of Irgun and at that time headed Herut and was a member of the Knesset. His goal was to undermine the attempts of the German government to seek friendly relations with Israel.

David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel, appreciated Adenauer’s response in playing down the affair and not pursuing it further, as it would have burdened the relationship between the two new states.

In June 2006 a slightly different version of this story appeared in Germany’s leading newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, quoted by The Guardian. Adenauer was targeted because he was sending Holocaust reparations to the Israeli government, whereas Begin felt passionately that the money should go to the individual victims. Sudit, the story’s source, explained that the “intent was not to hit Adenauer but to rouse the international media. It was clear to all of us there was no chance the package would reach Adenauer.”

Herut was founded by Menachem Begin in 1948 as the political successor to the Irgun, a paramilitary group in Mandate Palestine.

The party also drew criticism, most famously when the New York Times published a letter to the editor signed by over two dozen prominent Jewish intellectuals on 4 December, 1948. The letter condemned Menachem Begin and Herut on the occasion of Begin’s visit to New York City. Comparing Revisionist Zionism streams to “Nazi and fascist parties”, the letter was signed by individuals including Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and Sidney Hook. The letter began:

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party”, a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.

The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.
And it continues:

The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.
Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority. Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model.

Herut (Hebrew: חרות‎, Freedom) was the major right-wing political party in Israel from the 1940s until its formal merger into Likud in 1988, and an adherent to Revisionist Zionism. It is not to be confused with Herut – The National Movement, a party which broke away from Likud in 1998.
(all on Wiki pedia)

Plus ce change…eh?

So please chuck in a few billion each and I’ll soon rid the world of one of the powerful and dangerous geopolitical instruments ever nurtured and caressed by developed and some developing countries. Hell, I’ll even let you borrow one for the weekend to show off to your neighbours.

“So that’s the old W-188 they flogged off as surplus? With the impact fuse? Damien! Stop hitting it with the barbecue tongs! Daddy’s serious.”

On the other hand, you can always take a punt on Gareth Evans flying in to explain in eye-crossing detail why proud nuclear powers should publicly emasculate themselves.

Your choice…

So who needs my Paypal details?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv13ZnkpWos&eurl=http://www.videosift.com/video/Ronald-Regans-We-Bomb-Russia-in-5-Minutes-quote

(Reagan Bombing Joke)

Big slugger w/ smiley face painted on.

The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .

And yet… didn’t. Not even after the first bomb was dropped.

As for Leahy: “The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives”. ’nuff said.

Yes, an E.D Hill moment. An intentional accident. An oxyMORON.

Now if we need a campaign against champagne and hors-d’oeurvres or just someone to shag Andrew Bartlet, then by all means we should give him a call.

umm….. nice of you to think of me I guess, but I wouldn’t mind a say in the matter first. (although I’m still not quite sure why me as opposed to any of the other 7 billion people in the world)

Not quite. It just means demanding that they tell you whether they’re carrying nukes or not. The problem with NZ was that the US didn’t want to be honest with us, and refused to either “confirm or deny”. Hopefully they’re more mature now.

As for Pine Gap, unless it actually has nuclear weapons at it (and AIUI, it’s a listening station, similar to Waihopai in NZ), then it wouldn’t be a problem. Unless of course the US decided to throw a big sulk again.

“the lunar left” eh?:

In his memoirs Admiral William D. Leahy, the President’s Chief of Staff–and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff–minced few words:

[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .
[I]n being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children. [THE DECISION, p. 3.]

Again, William Buckley’s NATIONAL REVIEW–commenting on a statement by President Truman in 1958–observed:

… the question that must be at the back of the minds of the people of Hiroshima, and that ought to haunt Harry Truman: “Was it REALLY necessary? Might a mere demonstration of the bomb, followed by an ultimatum, have turned the trick?”
If there is a satisfactory answer to that question, the people of Hiroshima AND the people of the United States have a right to hear it. [THE DECISION, p. 566.]

see:

http://www.doug-long.com/debate.htm

Mutual assured destruction (MAD) has a different meaning when countries are not protecting their stockpiles adequately…especially when brought to their knees by corporate mobsters…& weapons runners are used to transport material to the highest bidder…or to prepare for false flag events that benefit the OPPORTUNISTS & PROFITEERS. And American planes are loaded up w/ THE BOMB for mysterious purposes.

I think one of the major things of the century.

Meaning global peace/security not Kevvie’s thing. Kevvie thing, we’ll just have to see.

Seiz’d us, though undismay’d: long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light;

In a way N Korea and Iran et al are doing the world a favour by making them pay attention to the possibility of psychotic use of such weapons. There’s plenty of non-American Jack D. Rippers out there I’m sure.

Nukes and techno-war are what makes the USA vulnerable to economic collapse.

Thermonuclear war between the USA and a comparable power (Rus Fed/PRC) if total would lead to collapse of world’s economy. But because of that it’s unlikely to happen for reasons the MAD doctrine makes plain. A terrorist attack on a city would hit the US of course but in that event it’s likely to be very linmited. And the resiliensce of the US economy partly due to measure taken to have the fiscal system running again quickly after a Nuke War shown after Sep 11/01 demonstrates that it’d unlikely be fatal.
>
The greatest threat to the US economy would be if their debtors called time on them and demanded payment in Euros (I think). Then they’d be fucked. But so would everyone else.

‘…Had the atomic bomb turned out to be something as cheap and easily manufactured as a bicycle or an alarm clock, it might well have plunged us back into barbarism, but it might, on the other hand, have meant the end of national sovereignty and of the highly-centralised police state…’ - You and the Atom bomb essay.

http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/abombs.html

Imagine theres no countries - easy if you try.

I agree Robert.

Couldn’t disagree more w/ comments at 15.

(remember: Hiroshima mon Amour part2 二十四時間の情事)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3scFCXGM05s

Ronald Reagan anyone? And I concede that George W is acting (badly) in the role of a lifetime as US President, but rational??? I don’t think so…

Almost all of the nuclear era has seen rational actors in charge of the buttons. Rather than having fairy dreams about disappearing nuclear weapons, the challenge to today’s diplomats is to foster sanity in those countries about to become nuclear.

How you do that in crap-holes like North Korea and Iran isn’t going to be solved by paying Gareth to junket around the world as some The Other non-proliferation czar (not that I’m any El-Baradei fan either). Now if we need a campaign against champagne and hors-d’oeurvres or just someone to shag Andrew Bartlet, then by all means we should give him a call.

The FA-wonk double-speak these two could manage if they were left together for more than five minutes just boggles the imagination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbwj5UFIQvg

(The Day After - Nuclear Strike)

And a brave, educated man, Dennis Kucinich, begins a journey that MUST be…walks a path to be joined by THE MANY…oneday…when they stop FORGETTING where they are, what they were thinkin’:

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential contender, said Monday he wants the House to consider a resolution to impeach President Bush.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi consistently has said impeachment was “off the table.”

Kucinich, D-Ohio, read his proposed impeachment language in a floor speech. He contended Bush deceived the nation and violated his oath of office in leading the country into the Iraq war.
(Huffington Post)
————-

Was just reading about the My Lai Massacre. And Hiroshima. And Woomera. Plus ce change…

It’s time to end the madness. Well said Kim et al.

(Now playing: “Say goodbye to the fire” by Beautiful World - Aussie musician Ben from the band Swirl, I think)