The Cost of Freedom

There are many reasons given for our non action in regards to nuclear proliferation such as we cannot go it alone, we do not have the resources, too expensive, and what right do we do have to say who should have nuclear weapons. Keeping those reasons in mind think about this scenario in which one automobile explodes containing a nuclear weapon in a major US city, I estimate the probable expense in both human lives lost and economic dollars would be greater than the cost of a hundred Iraq’s. Closer to home it would probably mean a 30 to 50% decrease in your investment portfolio and real estate holdings. We can pay now for security, or leave it to our children to pay. It appears to me as a nation we have decided to let our children pay a huge cost that we do not want to shoulder.

Nuclear Weapons

After the president’s State of the Union address in January, I believe it becomes apparent and we must deal with the reality that the Democratic Western and Asian Nations have abandoned the concept of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. Our children in their lifetime will most likely have to deal with a world where dozens of countries and non government organizations such as Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah possess nuclear weapons and various means of delivery, with all the ramifications that this proliferation of nuclear weapons involves. It must be remembered that historically a successful weapon system has never been developed without being used over and over.

In the 20th century we allowed about 170 million people can be killed either through war perpetrated by dictators or dictators exterminating their own population. The question is now with nuclear weapons possibly spreading to any nation or terrorist organization that desires these weapons; will the 21st century be as bloody as the 20th century? I sincerely hope for our children sake that my concerns are unfounded. Best regards, Larry

Nuclear Proliferation

For many decades our involvement in the Middle East was centered around oil, and I thought the driving force for our incursion into Iraq was also centered on oil. As time passes, I feel more strongly that our involvement in the Middle East is centered on the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Islamic nations. The oil reserves and production in nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran provide them with the monetary resources to develop nuclear arsenals which then will most likely be passed on to Islamic terrorists who wish to destroy Western civilization.

Think for a minute what the problems for our security in this country will be in 20 or 30 years when it is very likely that Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and several other Islamic countries will have nuclear weapons at their disposal. These weapons will most likely also find their way into the hands of Islamic terrorists whose goal is to destroy the Western World no matter what happens to them. Nuclear weapons can be delivered by car, truck, ship, boat, airplane, missile and wheelbarrows. We get very upset and rightly so when we lose 3000 wonderful men and women in Iraq, but we must realize that one nuclear explosion in this country can easily kill 500,000 people in one blast plus destroy an economy. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen and we are passing this problem on to our children and grandchildren which deeply disturbed me.

Currently it appears that the policy of the Western World is to complain and talk about nuclear proliferation, but to do nothing in real terms to stop this spread of nuclear weapons to Islamic countries and terrorist. Historically poor small countries and populations have searched for weapons to upset this balance, and to gain an edge. Nuclear weapons are relatively cheap and easy to obtained, and are the perfect weapon for small countries or organizations to defeat large affluent societies. This is their goal, and now they have the perfect weapon to accomplish their goals.

You may not agree with this thesis and I understand that, but please give it some thought before dismissing.

Best regards, Larry Larsson

Appeasement and History

About two years ago I went back and reread the chapter “The Road to War” in the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which is about 450 pages. Even being a World War II historian, I was surprised at how much I had forgotten or had been misled by revisionist history over the years. The rhetoric and appeasement towards Iran nears in many ways the rhetoric and appeasement to Germany in the 1930s. We say it is different now because Iran does not have a large military-industrial complex like Germany did, but we forget the atomic bomb is the great equalizer much as the colt revolver was in the old West. We lost about 450,000 soldiers in World War II, but one or two atomic bombs can easily equal or surpass that amount in a few seconds. It is unbelievable to me that nothing is being done to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to tyrannical dictatorships with most people now believing that nuclear war of some kind is inevitable in the next 10 to 30 years. If nothing is done then our populace is to blame for not demanding that tyrannical dictatorships do not have the atomic bomb. History has rarely been kind to the appeasers. Larry