Nagasaki’s lesson

The general orthodoxy of the “peace process” between Israelis and Palestinians proposes that Israel will retain an army (including nuclear weapons) and that the Palestinians will disarm and have no army.

I tried to explain to my brother that it made no sense for one country to maintain an army while the other side remained disarmed, and that it would be better if both sides disarmed (including nuclear weapons).

Although I did a rather bad job – I’ve never been good at getting points across to my brother for several reasons – having one side armed and another without a military or weapons makes no sense. To create and sustain peace it would be better if both sides didn’t have weapons.

He made the conventional argument that Israel needed weapons because of Iran. Essentially, nuclear weapons are good for deterrence and countries will never abolish nuclear weapons. This isn’t true, but as I said I’m not good about getting points across to my brother.

I wasn’t thinking about it when I tried to make my point about nuclear weapons yesterday, but today happens to be Nagasaki Day.

The fact that nuclear weapons have been used in war makes it clear that they should never be used again. The best way to make sure nuclear weapons are never used again is to get rid of them.

The “peace process” ignores nuclear weapons in the same way the climate agreements like the Paris Accords ignore the fact that the military (especially the US military) is one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.

Nuclear weapons are the opposite of peace. They make no one safer. It’s time all countries abolish them.