For the last fifty years, America has swaggered around the globe like a parody of one of it’s Hollywood Westerns. Like John Wayne carrying his six-shooter down the Main Street of Dodge City, America has strutted around the world, taking nuclear weapons wherever it wanted it’s way, from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Gulf of Panama to the Gulf of Persia.
Well, the other cowboys in town have gotten the message. To be someone in the nuclear age means you need to carry your own six-shooter. In the last few weeks, India and Pakistan have officially joined the nuclear cowboys by setting off nuclear weapons. Dodge City’s just become a little tougher.
International outrage against India and Pakistan is a little strange. No one’s really doubted they had nuclear capacity. Like Israel, it’s long been known they have nuclear weapons. The difference between them and the more established nuclear powers is simply the logic that says it’s okay for some countries to have nuclear weapons but not others. Like all double-standards, it was just a matter of time till the this one fell to its own hypocrisy.
The debut of two new nuclear cowboys has brought into sharp relief the real work of our age: full nuclear disarmament. The real Dodge City, Kansas long ago outgrew it’s gunslingers. The only John Wayne’s who stomp down its Main Street these days do so for the tourist cameras. It’s a quiet Midwestern town full of shopping malls, drug stores, and fast food restaurants. There’s no need for tough sheriffs, showdowns, or six-shooters.
The Wild West is long gone, relegated to the movie screens and cutsey gift shops. It’s time to close the door on the nuclear age too. Time to pack in the six-shooters and learn to live together under international law. Lets leave nuclear brinksmanship to Hollywood screenwriters and let the real world live in peace.
Recent Comments on Quaker Ranter Daily