Iowa and a Ban on Nuclear Test Explosions
by Paul DeatonIn traveling around Iowa, the author finds that people understand that nuclear weapons exist and were used by the United States during World War II. During a trip with a veteran of the Army of Occupation of Japan this week, it also became clear, that if you were a soldier training to invade Japan, you did not criticize President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In what seems a peculiar American value, one could accept the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Japanese citizens to bring the war to a speedy end. It was a different world before atomic bombs were used in warfare. Such use revealed their devastating capabilities and no state has used them against another since then.
President Obama gave a speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague, Czech Republic on April 5, 2009. He made an assertion with which most Iowans could agree, “The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War. No nuclear war was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union, but generations lived with the knowledge that their world could be erased in a single flash of light.”
If you ask Iowans, a majority do not believe that the United States and Russia will ever have a nuclear exchange. People say this at the same time they recount stories of “duck and cover” exercises when they crawled under their school desks to prepare for a nuclear attack. As Iowans, we seem able to accept that times and values change, and this includes our outlook towards nuclear weapons. Many agree with the framework and principles of nuclear disarmament as outlined by President Obama in Prague.
This week, Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, gave a speech at the Arms Control Association's Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. In recounting the administration's accomplishments regarding nuclear non-proliferation since the speech in Prague, she said,
The Administration also convened the successful 2010 Nuclear Security Summit, helped secure and relocate vulnerable nuclear materials, led efforts to establish an international nuclear fuel bank, and increased effective multilateral sanctions against both Iran and North Korea.”
Her speech focused on what she believes should be a major priority for the administration, “to make the case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on its merits.”
At the same time Secretary Tauscher was speaking, others in Washington, notably Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), were initiating steps to restrict the administration's power to move towards a world without nuclear weapons. According to Emily Cadei of Congressional Quarterly, “After their defeat last year over the weapons reduction pact with Russia, Republican skeptics of President Obama’s vision of a nuclear-free world are trying to rally opposition to the next phase of the administration’s arms control agenda.” Senator Sessions said earlier this month, “The United States Senate did not consent to a goal of disarmament. That was not part of the New START treaty.” If most Iowans could support nuclear disarmament, a small group of Senators in Washington have different ideas, seeking to tie the President's hands in negotiating foreign policy. (“GOP Planning Efforts to Constrain White House Options on Arms Reduction,” by Emily Cadei, Congressional Quarterly, May 10, 2011). Washington never seems to change.
Secretary Tauscher summed up the situation as she ended her speech,
But the actions of mothers taking a symbolic and dramatic step to recognize global nuclear dangers showed that the issue has resonance beyond 'the Beltway,' beyond the think tank world and beyond the Ivory Tower. That level of concern is there today and we need your energy, your organizational skills, and your creativity to tap into it.
If we are to move safely and securely to a world without nuclear weapons, then we need to build the requisite political support and that can only be done by people like you.”
Although it is never certain, one hopes Iowans will take the time to understand what is at stake in the movement toward a world without nuclear weapons and the national security benefits it would provide. If we take time and look at the facts, it is hard to imagine a scenario in which Iowans would not support a move in that direction.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton
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