Hiroshima, Nagasaki, USA Terrorism and JC: Part 1

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Eileen Fleming (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Eileen Fleming - Writer

"We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on The Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living."-General Omar Nelson Bradley, Armistice Day, 1948

August 6th and 9th 2008, marks the 63rd anniversary of the most brutal act of terrorism upon innocent people; America's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At 2:45 AM, on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber flew north from Tinian Island toward Japan. Three and a half hours later, the Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" an 8,900-pound atomic weapon upon civilians in Hiroshima and leveled almost 90% of the city. On August 9, "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, and one third of that city was destroyed.

"Little Boy" was fueled by highly enriched uranium-235 and generated a destructive force of about 15 kilotons—the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT. "Fat Man" consisted of a plutonium core surrounded by high explosives wired to explode simultaneously and yielded a 22 kiloton explosion.

As a child, I could not comprehend how my country could cold bloodedly target and murder an estimated 110,000 Japanese citizens and severely injure another 130,000 innocent civilians in order to 'save' American lives, which was the response I always received from every adult I questioned.

As an adult, I am aggrieved that no government official has expressed sorrow for the lives that were vaporized and those that were devastated in 1945, or for the 230,000 innocent Japanese who had died from injuries and radiation poisoning by 1950.

If THAT DAY, we call 9/11 taught us anything, it should be that America's nuclear arsenal cannot defeat 'terrorism' or provide security from the actions of a few violent mad men who target and murder innocent ones.

America has a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 weapons and nearly 2,000 remain on hair-trigger alert ever since the end of the Cold War.

An estimated 150 – 240 tactical nuclear weapons remain based in 5 NATO countries and the United States is the only country with nuclear weapons deployed on foreign soil.

American taxpayers provide $54 billion annually to maintain WMD's, which is but a drop in the bucket of the overall U.S. military spending. The U.S. is also a co-conspirator in international nuclear apartheid and collaborator in Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity.

American money is imprinted with "IN GOD WE TRUST" but reality is we have become a nation of hypocrites.

In the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican churches, the Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus: The Prince of Peace is observed on August 6th.

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the synoptic gospels in which Jesus became radiant having undergone a metamorphosis, a transformation.

COMPLEX TRANSFORMATION

"The question is not how much more sophisticated our plants and weapons can become, but how serious we are as a nation to lead the world with an alternative vision which interprets power differently and promotes peaceful coexistence globally."—Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Theological Advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on Environmental Issues, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, spoke about Complex Transformation at the National Press Club:

1 | 2 | 3

http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Eileen Fleming, Founder of www.wearewideawake.org/ A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes (more...)

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author

Contact Editor

View Authors' Articles

Book Recommendations for "American Foreign Policy Christianity"

Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945-1960: The Soul of Containment
by William Inboden III

$80.00
Lowest New Price $64.00
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Cambridge University Press