In the beginning The Atomic Bomb was constructed to end a war and save lives. Since that time fear and power have risen because of the threat of world destruction. Coming from Los Alamos, New Mexico a town that makes nuclear weapons I have a different view than most. In Los Alamos we always have protesters with big signs calling the scientist, that work at The Los Alamos National Laboratory, killers.
Now when I drive by and see these signs I can not help but think of my father, stepmother, and all my neighbors, all of my friends’ parents as being killers. I know and love these people and to see them called killers is a strange concept to grasp. The following will discuss nuclear weapons and what the intended use is, where and how nuclear weapons became a problem, the effect it has had on the world, the problems it has caused, what is being done about the problems. Nuclear weapons are the backbone and liberator of our great country. To put a tool used to insure our great country on the back burner would be a great injustice and would put our country in grave danger. Many people ask why do we still need all of these weapons or killers as they are often referred to as? They think that we have enough already and what is the point of continuing the excess.
Instead of thinking of nuclear weapons as killers we should be looking at them as lifesavers. In that light I think everyone would agree that you could not put a limit of the value of life. Everybody hears the statistics about the United States having enough weapons to blow the world up three times. This may be true, however as technology advances so do weapons and you can bet other countries are not settling for the weapons they already posses. If we were to stop the production of nuclear weapons we would be alone in that effort. When we have people like Sad am Hussain in the world, which we always will, we need the protection that only nuclear weapons can provide.
If people think that trying to bargain with a man like Hussain without safety net is plausible then they are hugely mistaken. It would be like using a typewriter instead of using a computer because we have an abundance of typewriters. “It would be wrong to assume that a broader conception of international security makes it easier to achieve the goal of nuclear abolition” (Cowen-Karp 6). People against nuclear weapons feel that the United States of America should dispose of all their nuclear weapons.
If the United States of America disposed of all its lifesavers we would have no power left to be the strongest nation in the world. Many opponents believe this would be fine. If those opponents were able to realize this would only jeopardize our freedom they would reconsider. Yet many people still feel that there should be peace and not war. The point these people are missing is that without nuclear weapons we would be forced into a war without a way to defend ourselves.
The very right that people have to protest nuclear weapons would be gone if the country, that gave them that right, had no means to protect our freedoms. The only way it would be safe to discard all nuclear weapons is if all countries everywhere did the same. Or just roll over and let the other countries that continue on with the production of providing its citizens with the best security. That is a nice thought but how likely is it that every country will agree to just dispose of nuclear weapons which cost billions if not trillions of dollars over the years? Lets just say that every country decides to dispose of the weapons, as well as all the money spent. How long will it be before an egomaniac sees a fast path to world domination? Maybe we should have never gone down the road of nuclear weapons, but now that we live in this world we have no choice but to continue with the process of keeping humanity from tyrants who want world domination.
Instead of thinking of all governments spending too much money of nuclear weapons we should be thinking of it as our government spending money to buy us a really good security system. “The fact that with all nuclear powers the nuclear component consumes only a minor fraction of total financial and manpower resources devoted to national defense” (Wie da 2). If I was a robber I would go to the house without the security system just like if I am a dictator looking to take over the world I am going to take over the country who has no chance of fighting me off. A lot of people believe that all of the National Laboratories that work with nuclear weapons should be shut down.
A very valid thought to most, but these people do not realize the extent of the laboratories role in our present society. None of these people realize that the laboratories had many other departments within the laboratory. They develop materials that help build the space shuttles, they make chips that make our computers work faster, they develop different types of machinery that helps save lives in emergency rooms and work closely with the national weather service letting them know ahead of time when a natural disaster might occur saving thousands of lives. All of these life insurance policies are made and yet the only thing the newspaper splashes around is spies selling secrets and people getting cancer along with every other disease known to man from the supposed radiation that all people in Los Alamos suffer from.
There have been many claims about the work done with nuclear weapons that has put Los Alamos residents in danger. However, there has never been a case that has proven the laboratory responsible for any claim. Fifty years ago during World War II, a little town in northern New Mexico was established to build the first atomic bomb. Los Alamos was a secret city with the only residents being the top scientists in the world. These scientists included Albert Einstein, Henry Open heimer, and Thomas Mckibben, a man who lived across the street from me for almost my entire life.
I remember being young and Mr. Mckibben would tell my sister and I epic stories about the first time the scientist tested the first bomb. None of them knew if it would work or not, but had the hope of helping to save many lives throughout the world. Mr. Mckibben was given the duty to push the button to start the thirty-second countdown that changed the war as well as the world forever. When it was all over and the test was successful the scientists were elated with the fact that they had a part in saving many lives.
Later on in Mr. Mckibben’s life he was hurt when people said that the making of the bomb was a horrific and murderous thing. They were there to do a job for their country, as well as humanity, which enabled the war come to an end. However, in the end people brutalized them for creating world hysteria.
By creating the atomic bomb and dropping it killing many people is looked at as being a horrible act against humanity. However, as bad as it was for all of those people to suffer in the end more people would have suffered if the war and Hitler would have continued. Nuclear Weapons have the tendency to scare people at the same time as protecting them (Purer 29). The cold war was a scary time for all creating a constant fear of obliteration. The fact that at anytime a bomb could be dropped and kill everybody regardless of age, gender, sex, or race around for miles was an unknown fear. It was a new concept to many of something not discriminating.
In the eyes of a nuclear weapon everybody was equal. For that whole time everybody was terrified of the cold war, the national government was developing highly technical security systems for our protection. If they had not been in development there would have been a lot more to worry about. With all the development the balance of world power shifted and the countries with the weapons gained more power and the countries without weapons became weaker. All the people scared for their lives realized that only a few people in the world held the fate of the world in their hand.
All it would take is one miscommunication between a couple of world leaders and then world would go up in flames as fast as you could say dead. A big fear is that a situation could occur where there is an accidental launch and a world leader calls another to say, “sorry you are about to be hit with a nuclear bomb” (Sheilas 16). Questions like these went through the minds of many people who realized that just a few mistakes could take down the entire world. It was a very unlikely situation but still a prevalent thought. It would be better to have the fear of that phone call to our country than to never get the call.
This might sound weird but if we were to get the call, the call would show a sign of respect and realization that we were in a position to fight back. Some problems that have come up are the constant threats of terrorist bombing and hurting many people to make a statement. The Oklahoma City Bombing is still on the minds of many people because of the devastation of the tragic event and the fact that it happened in the American Homeland so it could happen anywhere. At first everybody thought that this horrible thing must have been done by someone from the Middle East. Then when the nation found out that it was done by one of our own the situation became more alarming. The other terrorism attack which people remember is the World Trade Center bombing.
The friction that exists between many countries makes for a constant threat of such attacks. “When terrorist attacks take place on United States soil it brings the real threat of nuclear weapons to the forefront” (Schwartz 5). The attacks that occur on other soil by the United States makes the threat of another world struggle very prevalent. “If another country did half of the things the United States does on foreign soil there would be an outcry from the United States and would not go unpunished” (Vogel e 68). The United States takes it upon themselves to be the world police. If the United States were to have problems and another country came over to solve our problems for us, we would fight back with furious force.
Now most of the world has come to an agreement on the amount of production and the way the nuclear weapons should be used and when they should be used. Now there is going to be a great deal of attention given to the few countries not in compliance with the rest of the world. “The United States has to stay competitive with the world on nuclear weapon production in order to be safe and sure we can protect ourselves as well as others” (Cowen-Karp 120). It is important to be careful with the type of power exercised that comes with having nuclear weapons.
If this power is placed in the wrong hands the world could cease to exist. “The few ruling powers have the unusual power to destruct and hold together the world” (Schwartz 6). The building of nuclear weapons is a very delicate subject for people who see it only as being a machine of death. The building of these lifesavers is more of a safety net then a way to kill people. Think of our country as a tightrope walker having extreme confidence in his skills. He knows he can make it across, but when it is a matter of his life at stake it helps to have the safety net even though it is not necessary.
We all as a society have to realize that if used nuclear weapons are dangerous but it is more dangerous to not have the option of using them. Coming from a community that relies on the building of nuclear weapons, among other things, I realize I have a bias on this topic. However, even if I did not have this bias I still would like to know that when it came down to it we would have enough influence that a foreign country would think twice before sending a nuclear weapon towards the United States.