The Nuclear Weapon is Your Friend

I’m not terribly old, but I’ve been told I remember things like some old geezer sitting at the end of the bar on Wednesday afternoon.  They are obscure memories.  Maybe they are meant for some other generation, or maybe I just keep repeating them until I find the humor in them.

Some years ago, a popular movie was in theatres.  Robert DiNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr starred in “Men of Honor.”  It has been a classic among military types showing the heart and sole of all people from all backgrounds as they strive for equality among their peers during trying times of strife.  It’s a great flick with strong acting and a wonderful musical score.  Except –

Except no one is talking about why a Navy deep sea diver is fishing around in the dark of the Atlantic Ocean looking for a nuclear bomb that an Air Force guy dropped.

According to an undated article listed on the Center for Defense Information website entitled    “U. S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS ACCIDENTS,” by Jaya Tiwari and Cleve J. Gray, the incident in the movie happened on January 17, 1966 off the coast of Palomares, Spain.  (http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm) Apparently, a B-52 and a KC-135 were going through their normal high altitude refueling maneuvers for the third time when the boom struck the B-52.  The boom ripped the spine right out of the B-52.  The result was a blown up KC-135 with seven crewmen dead, a destroyed high value B-52, and four hydrogen bombs that had nowhere to go but straight down.  Two bombs burned on impact with the ground, one bomb didn’t burn when it hit the ground, and the last bomb sunk to the bottom of the ocean.  The United States has 1,400 tons of radioactive Spanish soil sitting somewhere in the states because of that blunder.  I’ll bet we’re being charged taxes on the property too.What does this really mean?  First of all, it means we’re dangerous.  But if you think about that moniker, being thought of as dangerous is not necessarily a bad thing.  Some countries the US has fought have some very interesting impressions of what US Marines do in a war zone.  Multiplying that impression can be an advantage if we’re talking about the most dangerous weapon on Earth.  How willing are you to confront someone who has the most powerful weapon on Earth AND is willing to be careless with it?Second, the US has had a lot of nuclear accidents.  We are so good at doing questionable things regarding nuclear weapons that once you briefly read through the various accidents and near accidents, you come to learn that when a Minuteman III missile registered the need to launch at FE Warren AFB on January 10, 1984, our fearless leaders parked an armored car over the silo door.  You’ve got to be pretty talented to come up with that solution.Third, let’s call the recent incident at Minot AFB with nuclear missiles mistakenly transported on board a B-52 what it really is – a mistake.  It’s not a firing event.  It’s not a reassignment type of scenario.  It’s a mistake.  Nobody launched anything.  Nobody dropped anything.  Nobody got hurt.On January 21, 1968, four nuclear bombs on a B-52 caught fire when the aircraft had to make an emergency landing at Thule AB, Greenland and crashed south of the base.  That’s a catastrophe.  That’s not a mistake.  It wasn’t deliberate, but it’s enough to give pause to what we do with this most powerful of weapons.  It also makes everyone question how careful we are when we fly over their country with a few nuclear weapons on board.  Denmark still has issues with the US over what happened at Thule in 1968.Consider this:  We have a lot of nuclear weapons in our country.  Anyone with a brief understanding of what has happened to these weapons over the years can appreciate that other countries must think we’re crazy.  Many people debate the issue of dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but those were planned events.  Just a generation ago, we let people fly around with a huge killer bomb on board an aircraft and we weren’t sure if the plane would land or crash.So here’s the plan.  Let’s start flying Predators loaded with small nuclear warheads over areas that have known terrorist organizations.   When they shoot one down, they get a surprise.  And the resulting answer is, “Don’t mess with us or our stuff.”  If you do, you’ll probably die.There were stories back in the late ‘80s about the American hostages held in Tehran, Iran for 444 days.  The story was that some Russian Embassy members were taken hostage too.  The Russians were released only two or three days later.  The story goes that Russian KGB types learned who had captured their people and then proceeded to take the family members of the terrorists into custody.  The KGB called the terrorists inside the embassy and asked a terrorist if they would like to talk to their mother – because it would be the last time he would talk to his mother.  Moments later, the terrorist’s mother is dead.  Then the KGB would ask if the terrorist would like to talk to their father – then brother – then sister – then grandparents – and you get the point.The irony I find in this country is that we will make a television series like “24” with Kiefer Sutherland a hit show.  We’ll applaud Vin Diesel in the “XXX” movies because it shows America’s might.  But when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of protecting our country, we get wimpy.  The old adage is that you fight fire with fire.  I say fight fire with nukes.Nothing scares someone so much as knowing that a nuclear device could potentially kill them.  It’s the reason we have protestors and demonstrations and people getting arrested outside nuclear power plants.  But I’d venture to say that is only because the nuclear material is on our soil.  What if the nuclear material was flying over someone else’s soil?The impression is that the rest of the world doesn’t like us.  OK – fair enough.  But to call us ugly Americans when we haven’t really done anything truly ugly is an affront against our potentially bad reputation.Debate this concept the next time you’re at work.  Various leaders in this country have announced that the US will be attacked by terrorists again.  Why?  Could it be because the terrorists know that our response is half hearted and nearly weaponless?  What if we took our anger out on everyone in the terrorist’s family?  How long would they continue to strike us?