Sixty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, a B-52 bomber disintegrated over a small Southern town. An eyewitness recalls what happened next.
Source: Remembering the night two atomic bombs fell—on North Carolina
August 6— It’s an overcast and windy morning. There was an occasional drizzle on my way into work. The school and the city just observed the anniversary of the first nuclear carpet bombing. 74 years ago today this city was reduced to smoldering, irradiated rubble in carpet-bombing targeting civilians, designed to strike terror and hopelessness into the hearts of the Japanese population and win the Pacific War ahead of a Russian invasion of the Japanese mainland. It was a unique bombing only in terms of the type of weapon used. Otherwise, it is I think fair to say that bombings like these continue into the present day, initiated by the American Executive, left unchecked by the Congress and largely ignored by the American populace. These bombings still target civilians and kill tens of thousands of innocent people every year in places like Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. End the American Capitalist Death Cult!
Portrait of Sadako Sasaki – a young girl who became the symbol of the innocent lives lost in the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and to the brutalities of World War II. Artwork by Joëlle Jones. From Red Flag Magazine: https://redflag.org/magazine/issue-6/wish-upon-a-crane/
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This piece I found on consortiumnews.com was written in June by William J. Astore. It’s a great summary of America’s obsession with “air supremacy.” Astore calls the American Military Industrial Complex a “cult,” as do the authors of the “Eyes Left” podcast, which I highly recommend.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/10/the-american-cult-of-bombing/
The United States has a policy allowing the first use of nuclear weapons. Abolishing it will save money and make the world safer.
Source: End the First-Use Policy for Nuclear Weapons – The New York Times
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said his country would welcome President Obama to Hiroshima, hoping that together they can create a world without nuclear weapons.
Source: Japanese Premier Discusses Obama’s Visit – Video – NYTimes.com
Most people in Japan believe the city was a victim of unnecessary brutality, but for Americans of the World War II generation, Hiroshima is at the center of a very different narrative.
Source: Obama’s Visit Raises Ghosts of Hiroshima – The New York Times
On the president’s trip to Japan this month, a visit to the cities where America dropped atomic bombs could highlight the horrors of nuclear weapons, but could also risk being seen as an apology.
Source: Obama Weighs Visiting Hiroshima or Nagasaki – The New York Times
Thirty years later, there are signs of commercial clear-cutting in supposedly off-limits forests around the site of the nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
Source: Chernobyl’s Silent Exclusion Zone (Except for the Logging) – The New York Times
WASHINGTON — A White House official said on Thursday that it would be “catastrophic” to adopt a proposal by Donald J. Trump, the Republican front-runner, that Japan and South Korea manufacture their own nuclear bombs to deter North Korea.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser and one of President Obama’s closest aides, said, “Frankly, it would be catastrophic were the United States to shift its position and indicate that we somehow support the proliferation of nuclear weapon to additional countries.”
The Republican front-runner said he would consider withdrawing U.S. forces from Japan and South Korea if they did not spend more on military defense.
Source: Comments by Donald Trump Draw Fears of an Arms Race in Asia – The New York Times
