GUNNING FOR NORTH KOREA

Will we soon be putting a numeral after "Korean War"?

I figure it's time I roll up my sleeves and take a good look at this whole North Korea/Axis of Evil thing.

I want to do a little more research before I really dive in deep but I'd like to offer a few thoughts here as a preface.

These are they:

1/ Whatever the facts of the situation, it is clear that the U.S. has been itching for this one for years.

2/ As the war drums begin to beat, the U.S. again shows its complete and utter disregard for the other nations of the world by not taking its grievances -- such as they might be -- to the United Nations so that that body may handle the problem. That is, after all, primarily why the U.N. was founded.

3/ The United States has a bug up its rear about certain countries -- including North Korea -- pursuing nuclear programs. I am opposed to both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, for reasons of survival. But I am bewildered by the audacious hypocrisy the U.S. flaunts when it comes to this issue. (Don't even get me started on the history of arms reduction treaties -- something I studied under some fine professors for an end result that could have been attained in an hour. Namely, such treaties/negotiations have never been approached seriously.)


LET'S CUT THE B.S.

And then there is the core of the hypocrisy which turns my stomach.

Firstly, the U.S. is so overloaded with nukes it could blow us all to hell several times over. But, of course, we're the "good guys" so everyone should trust us with them. Besides, they make a lot of money for a lot of fat cats. (Always, always, follow the money.)

Secondly, the United States is the ONLY country to EVER use nuclear weapons against another nation. Think about that. And think about the hundreds of thousands of casualties of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- most of them civilians! And this was done even though the Japanese were ready to surrender because Truman wanted to show the Soviets who was going to be running the planet after WWII. Spare me the more palatable, fantasy theories. I've heard them all and they are a fool's delight.


GETTING PERSONAL

My Dad may well have been a casualty of these bombings too. He was about 19 when he was sent to Hiroshima as part of the occupational forces. My Dad seldom spoke about either of the wars he fought in (he was also in Korea), but I seem to recall him telling me that it made a big impression on him how "flat" Hiroshima was after the Enola Gay dispatched her wicked payload.

My father died before his time of a cancer that we couldn't trace to a source. He was a fit, non-smoker. But the theory was put forward that he'd carried the radiation of Hiroshima since his "tour" there. And that is the most likely explanation we've come up with.

So I have a very personal loathing for the U.S.'s nuclear policies. I've had mentors who would say that an academic should always be detached. Perhaps. But an activist needs to assign names and faces to things, and not just numbers and statistics.

And now, history's wheel is turning full circle again. Noise about nukes. The U.S. glaring at the Korean peninsula.

We mustn't let this brush over us, for we do so at our peril.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

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