There is a cliché that generals and military planners tend to design their war plans around “fighting the last war,” and in doing so, plan for the wrong war and are blind-sided when faced with a totally different battlefield.
That is my response to a Washington Postop-ed reprinted by the Monitor on Dec. 1 headlined “Why America needs low-yield nuclear warheads now.” My first thought is, wow, do we really want a rerun of the Cold War?
Obviously, a nuclear war would be catastrophic. Given the massive number of nuclear weapons now deployed, the world would be destroyed several times over. Certainly, this is a danger that should be addressed. However, investing our energy and wealth by returning to the strategy of the Cold War is not the solution. Returning to a nuclear arms race is a path that increases the possibility of a nuclear disaster rather than making us more secure.
Furthermore, directing our resources, energy and wealth toward renewing the arms race pulls us away from addressing the problem that is daily assaulting our country. We seem resistant to call climate change a national security issue. However, our security and future are being compromised by climate change that is devastating our country.
It seems that many are not aware that climate change is not a slow, gradual global warming in which the world calmly heats up. Contrary to that, global warming has and will continue to blast us with extreme weather events. There will continue to be an increase in huge storms, cataclysmic weather events and erratic weather radically different from past weather patterns. We witness it daily.
These erratic weather events will of course be accompanied by a gradual rise in temperatures, carrying more devastation.
As I write this, a “mammoth” snow and ice storm has just walloped North Carolina and Virginia, immobilizing both states. Other parts of the deeper South were getting hit with up to two inches of rain per hour.
A few months ago, this same area of the country was being inundated with flooding unlike anything it had previously experienced as Hurricane Florence was predicted to dump 18 trillion gallons of water over the Southeast. The Associated Press estimates this to be enough water to cover Manhattan with 3,800 feet of water, twice the height of One World Trade Center.
If you were to spread this rainfall out it would cover the entire state of Texas in four inches of water.
We have all been disheartened by the massive fires in California. This year’s Camp Fire alone burned more than 153,000 acres and destroyed 18,804 structures. Damage is estimated to be $7.5 billion to $10 billion.
Climate change isn’t the only factor in these massive fires in California, but it plays a significant role.
Neil Lareau, an atmospheric scientist, states that due to warming, the atmosphere is getting thirstier, which is drying out the state and providing fuel for fires. Climate change also contributes to insect infestations and disease outbreaks in forests, making the forests more vulnerable to fires.
The latest U.S. Climate Report prepared by 13 federal agencies attempts to project costs for climate change into the future. That projection seems impossible to me. What is clear is that the costs already are enormous and can only keep increasing.
It is also clear that if some foreign country were causing these disasters, we would already be at war and that people would be rushing to enlist to protect the country.
If a bomb had been dropped on a U.S. dam releasing 18 trillion gallons of water flooding the surrounding area, we would be at war. If the area wiped out by the California Camp Fire had been caused by a foreign country, we would be seeing the same kind of mobilization that happened after 9/11.
Jon Kyle and Michael Morell start their article advocating for low-yield nuclear warheads by stating that, “The U.S. Constitution mandates that the government ‘provide for the common defence.’ ”
We need our government to recognize that we are already under attack and that the country needs to provide for the common defense. Of course, mini nukes will never offer a shred of defense against the attacks we are undergoing.
(Gray Fitzgerald of Concord is a retired United Church of Christ pastor.)