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US use of nuclear weapons, crying shame: Analyst (Video) -Ploughshares

Beregin: The American people are, more and more, making their voices heard againstBush and his warrior clones. Bush and his minions slip out of control, determined to go to war, determined to go it alone, determined to endanger the Palestinians further, determined to control Iraqi oil, determined to ravage further a suffering people and their shattered society. The American people can stop Bush, can yank his feet closer to the fire, can banish the war makers from Washington D.C., can turn this society around and restore it to faith and sanity. 

 

Obuszewksi: Absolutely. The Obama administration has asked for USD 585 billion to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. It is a crying shame. The dangers are evident. The radiation is poisoning.

 

Obuszewksi: Well, it is our government officials. It is our military. Your listeners should know this. December 19th, 1999, four peace activists went to a military base outside of Baltimore to disarm helicopters which fired depleted uranium. This was Philip Berrigan and three of his colleagues. Philip Berrigan is now dead. He was the founder of the Plowshares Movement but they recognized, far back, the dangers of depleted uranium.

 

Tens of thousands of people, including the survivors, victims’ relatives, and government officials attended the annual ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome, on Monday. 

Hiroshima was devastated on August 6, 1945 after the US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing an estimated 140,000 people instantly or gradually from radiation sickness and cancers. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000. 

Press TV has conducted an interview with Max Obuszewksi, peace activist from Baltimore, to further discuss the issue. 

The video also offers the opinions of two other guests: senior editor of Veterans Today (VT) website, Gordon Duff and Vietnamese-American political analyst and writer, Linh Dinh. 

The following is a rough transcription of the interview. (And link to the video)

Press TV:The US and Russia, we know, possess more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, of which about 2,000 are on high alert – meaning they are ready for launch in minutes. Doesn’t this reliance on nuclear arsenals encourage the spread of weapons and increase the possibility of an accidental launch or intentional nuclear attack? 

Obuszewksi: Absolutely. The Obama administration has asked for USD 585 billion to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. It is a crying shame. The dangers are evident. The radiation is poisoning.

I just talk about the United States because that is where I live. But I think that there is one country that got rid of its nuclear arsenal. When Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa, they did get rid of the apartheid bomb. So that is what emboldening some of us in the peace community that we have to do whatever we can to get rid of these awful weapons. 

Three friends of mine went to the Oak Ridge nuclear weapon facility in Tennessee on July 28th and engaged in a demonstration and they actually shut down this nuclear weapons lab. So I think we today here in Baltimore are going to commemorate, for the 28th year, the bombing of Hiroshima and we will actually have two people who are there where the bomb fell on Hiroshima speaking tonight and as well we have somebody that is coming from Fukoshima because we want to make the connection between nuclear weapons and nuclear power. 

Press TV: Depleted uranium (DU) is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. We even had a program here on Press TV about the effects of depleted uranium on children who are being born in Iraq’s Fallujah city because of the depleted uranium that has been used there. So basically when it comes to the use of these types of nuclear weapons for instance in the formof DU in warzones, who is responsible? Who is going to sound accountable for the effects they are having? 

Obuszewksi: Well, it is our government officials. It is our military. Your listeners should know this. December 19th, 1999, four peace activists went to a military base outside of Baltimore to disarm helicopters which fired depleted uranium. This was Philip Berrigan and three of his colleagues. Philip Berrigan is now dead. He was the founder of the Plowshares Movement but they recognized, far back, the dangers of depleted uranium.

All four of them were convicted in a trial in Baltimore County in March of 2000. So there are people who are going to continue to speak out and we have to embolden to take serious action if we have any hope to get rid of these awful weapons. 

Press TV: When we are speaking about nuclear weapons, the issue of Obama’s Noble Peace Prize is also discussed. People are saying that the American president that got that prize is the same president that is going ahead with the use of nuclear weapons against civilians in warzones. Your last comments…. 

Obuszewksi: Well, it is an embarrassment but remember that Henry Kissinger also won the Noble Peace Prize. The Noble committee as I understand it, tried to goad President Obama into nuclear disarmament but it has not worked. Those of us in the peace movement will continue to press him [Obama] and all of the nuclear warriors to abolish nuclear weapons and eliminate nuclear power.

TNP/PKH

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/07/254982/us-use-of-nuclear-weapons-crying-shame/

October 27, 2012 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized