The 60th Anniversay of Hiroshima.

[anarchy1999]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4222301


The Cost is Too High.



Edited on Fri Jul-29-05 05:21 PM by anarchy1999

Here it is...

The Cost is Too
High
by

This past May, the last of the brilliant atomic pioneers, who developed
the first atomic bomb, Philip Morrison, died. Morrison, like many of
his Los Alamos colleagues became a leading advocate of international
arms control. like the director of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, who said to President Harry Truman after the bomb was
used, “ Mr. President, I have blood on my hands.” and became a leading
critic of the efforts of his main rival, Edward Teller to develop the
hydrogen bomb. President Truman as well, said later (and I may
paraphrase) “We can never use that bomb again, especially against kids.”

Another atomic scientist who made the transition from the use of
military nuclear power, was my brother, Dr. Malcolm Stuart. He
received his Phd in Atomic Physics in 1955 from the University of Iowa
at the age of 26, and went to work immediately under Admiral Hyman
Rickover, as a Senior Scientist on the first nuclear-powered submarine,
the Nautilus. Of course we only discovered this later, as his work was
all classified. Growing up, Mac was a fine big brother to me, smart,
funny, handsome and a whiz at the piano. He used to joke when we asked
what he wanted for Christmas, “Just a little peace and quiet”…… He
helped me with my story problems, and I helped him with spelling! He
married my sorority sister, had a family, and worked hard at his job,
being primarily responsible for the heat shield protecting the crew
from the nuclear core. After a few years, he quit the work with the
military to go into the design of nuclear power plants, disillusioned
about the continued buildup of weapons. But when he began to see the
problems that could occur with construction, waste disposal, etc. of
the power plants, he became concerned that there would be an accident,
a meltdown, that would also endanger many lives. He asked for, and
was granted a two year sabbatical to work in Palo Alto, California as a
consultant on the safety of the reactors, and development of
alternative energy. That was in 1978. Unfortunately, the first month
after he arrived, he was diagnosed with cancer of the lung. He had
already suffered several glandular inflammations, which we reasoned
later were probably caused by his exposure to the many “hot” nuclear
sites where he had worked.

go to link above for the rest.

[punpirate]

1. And, after sixty years of uneasy tension...

... most exemplified by mutually assured destruction (MAD), we've survived, only to find ourselves led by a man who cannot even pronounce nuclear correctly, and is seeking new weapons to use against non-nuclear countries....

Did Stuart, or Robert Oppenheimer, or Hans Bethe, or Richard Feynmann or Ted Taylor ever conceive of these times, long after the end of the so-called Cold War, when weapons proliferation continues apace?

There were more people killed in the first firebombings of Tokyo by LeMay's B-29s loaded with napalm than in Hiroshima. But, there were hundreds of planes, and thousands of bombs. One plane and one bomb did damage equal to that.

And now, we have many planes, many ICBMs, many nuclear warheads, and a man who is insane enough to use them indiscriminately.

Pray for time. Time enough to rid ourselves of people like Bush, who will never know what he has done, nor can know of what he is capable.

Aug. 6th, 1945
Aug. 9th, 1945.

... the beginnings of what we all hope will have a definitive end.

[Erika]

2. Yes pray for time n/t

[anarchy1999]

3. At this early hour of the morning a song comes to mind, something about

"stepping in to a twilight zone!"

Ah yes, we can only hope and pray.