Warmongers!

I almost missed it yesterday, almost a side note in the jumble of the morning news. It was nearly two weeks into the Hurricane Katrina aftermath and the four-year anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers, so the newscasters had so much to talk about. Thankfully, the Washington Post didn’t miss it (registration-free reprint at MSNBC). And so, it slipped out: apparently, the Pentagon—and George W. Bush—have been hoping to change U.S. policy on nuclear weapons.

They’ve noticed—the rest of the world, that is. Search Google News, you’ll see.

This fear-driven, power-hungry administration has forgotten the international treaties, forgotten the idea of deterrence, forgotten how “a gentle answer turns away wrath”, forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki (not to mention the Marshall Islands)… and decided that our wants are more important than the survival of the planet, and we should be able to threaten anyone with The Big Guns and start a war if we want to.

In one of the most pointed commentaries on the situation, D.L. McCracken of Halifax Live says it’s “Now Only a Matter of Time”. If you don’t read any other link I’ve pointed to, read this one.

Never have I been at once so scared and so disappointed to be an American citizen as I am right now.