America’s ‘Divine right’

THOMAS GOWAN

Oh no! Run to your basement! Hide under your desk! Cower in fear! North Korea might have tested a nuclear weapon! The U.S. is furious! The U.S. “condemns” such a “provocative act!” How dare North Korea undermine the safety of the world! And please, everyone, when the president of America, the most peaceloving country in the world, says he cares about “international peace and security,” he means it.

Remember, his country manufactures, tests, and stockpiles over 10,000 nuclear warheads to convince other nations not to do the same! It’s a patriotic, democratic, free-nation build-up of nukes that in no way threatens mankind or puts pressure on other countries to develop their own nuclear capabilities!

Please, pay no attention while the U.S. continues to make “efforts to thwart the enactment of international agreements designed to constrain proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.” Because when America attacks nations with no evidence of nuclear production, to stop nuclear production, while obstructing efforts to control nuclear production, it’s completely justifiable! Hypocritical? Never! It’s the “freedom agenda.”

Should you be concerned that the U.S. is planning to use nuclear weapons in “pre-emptive” war? Wait a minute. Isn’t there a TV show you could be watching right now? Don’t let that pestering morality stop you from enjoying the latest that entertainment has to offer! Why worry? The U.S. will use “mini-nukes” or “bunkerbusters.” Cute little bunker-busters, conveniently blurring the connection to the atomic horrors experienced by the people of Japan who had their “hair and clothing scorched and their burnt skin hanging off in sheets like rags” with bodies left like “clumps of charcoal.” No nuclear bombs here; only safe and surgically precise bunker-busters.

So, remember, America has the divine right to “protect” itself, but no one else can. They can equip other nations with military hardware, but no one else can. They can act in defiance of international law, but no one else can. America spends more money on war than peace and can still call themselves “the greatest force of good in the world” and that’s without cracking a smile!

While the media picks its flavour of the week, temporarily shifting its focus to North Korea, the American president is cited as a somehow legitimate voice to condemn North Korea’s alleged test. Meanwhile, little if any attention is focused on the very real and continuous threat of U.S. nuclear weapons programs and their aggressive actions against resource-rich, non-threatening, “undemocratic” states.

“Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction,” says President Bush, and if North Korea does it, what does that make America?