[Letter to the Editor, Published in The Seattle Times, February 18, 2012 in response to Lance Dickie's opinion piece published February 16th] Note: This is my original version as sent to The Times.
President should think about the Bangor Base
Editor, The Times:
Lance Dickie did a fine job of welcoming the president to Washington and reminding him of the “special point[s] of pride for the region and the national economy.” He left out just one critical point of pride, and the one of greatest impact [“While you’re here, Mr. President,” Opinion, Feb. 17].
He might have included the following:
Mr. President, just 27 miles from where you are lunching lies one of our nation’s greatest sources of military pride, The Bangor Trident Base, home port to eight ballistic-missile submarines, each one carrying enough nuclear warheads to incinerate an entire continent. These mighty denizens are the stars of our nuclear triad, and capable (on your orders) of killing millions, creating nuclear winter and a living hell for the survivors.
As your visit is, in large part, a celebration of creativity, I trust you will remember this as you consider plans that include a next-generation ballistic-missile submarine. Your stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons requires vision, creativity and fortitude to create a new paradigm of conflict resolution before we can rid ourselves of these weapons for the sake of future generations.
— Leonard Eiger, coordinator, Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone
No comments:
Post a Comment