Correspondence
Correspondence Today's victims Albuquerque, N.M. To the Editors: The issue of nuclear war is surely an important one [Mar. 12], but it seems worth noting that it is also a highly elitist issue....
...DENA JUSTIN Correction A typographical error in last issue's "Correspondence" column identified George Weigel as a scholar at the World With War Council...
...they started it, they should be made to pay in kind...
...To the Editors: I've just finished reading Thomas Powers's "On Nuclear Disbelief [Jan...
...I, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mi...
...Human life is more precious than ideology...
...it really is time to think clearly about it...
...In all, fifteen to twenty million civilians are killed by blast or fall-out...
...p. 287, Mahood, Punch...
...A Memphis balcony...
...It appears to me that nuclear war is unwinnable...
...If England can deny human rights in Ireland and our friends can do it in Brazil and El Salvador, then why should we decry similar atrocities in Afghanistan and Poland...
...Or might we be better Red than dead...
...Assuming their population is stratified similar to ours, almost a majority of them are children and teen-age youth...
...And, above all, the many races of people who inhabit it...
...Humans kill for food, too...
...what to do...
...But now, the anxieties have peaked...
...p. 264, Bas., Tachydromos...
...p. 266, Mitro, Ta Nea, Greece...
...26) is a plea for the only means available for a non-violent world...
...Given the inadequate target information, the probability of poor and broken communications between the launching authority and those' making the target decisions (e.g...
...a submarine commander, or bomber crew) and simple outright rage at the Soviet Union for launching first, it seems improbable that there wouldn't be total retaliation, and subsequent total retaliation in kind by the Soviets...
...Illustrations: Cover & p. 267, statue of Jan Hus, Prague...
...Might even they be appalled at the destruction...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...It could be very difficult to tell whether a missile is aimed at San Francisco or the Nevada desert...
...One wonders what would in fact happen if we simply did nothing...
...If Gulf & Western can destroy the union of sugar refinery workers in the Dominican Republic to maximize profits, then Russia can destroy Solidarity to minimize rebellion...
...And one wonders, where and when will it end...
...Or pretend to surrender...
...MIKE EVANS Time of trouble Villanova, Pa...
...Our reaction has been so far that nuclear war is unthinkable...
...The kitchen floor of some L.A...
...It is known that a high number of the Soviet targets would be large city areas containing both civilian and military forces...
...Does it make any sense to destroy several million or tens of millions of Russian civilians...
...It has simply been brought home to us this time...
...It brought back a flood of warm memories of the years I taught at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, and Dan was a student - the best - in my Greek, Latin, and Mythology classes...
...Balanced budgets cannot be secured by a planned unemployment rate of twelve percent...
...Someone should ask an eight-year-old or a mother with a newborn at the breast, or one of the countless survivalists who have been preparing for just such an eventuality...
...Again, who pays...
...If we did nothing, what would the Soviets do next...
...of preventing Soviet world domination...
...Aren't these people innocent, just as our civilians are innocent...
...targeting only obviously military emplacements...
...The plight of the survivors, stranded and dazed without food, water, medicines, schools, newspapers, shelter, or transportation, forced to watch their children sicken and die of diseases that were "conquered" years ago, is the plight of millions now...
...Yet again, the fall-out and ecological damage, particularly to our West European allies, would cost the lives of countless other truly innocents...
...Rice paddies...
...We might arm and prepare to defend against invasion, attempt to negotiate immediately for whatever concessions and trade-offs would permit us to survive...
...That chaos would bring all the multi-national corporations, the bankers, brokers, shippers, and traders to absolute ruin...
...Consider further if it would be jndeed possible for the Soviets to invade and control our country without possibly reducing it to rubble first...
...We need to know how to respond, how to survive, how ultimately to prevent it...
...Published data indicates both sides have a total surplus of weapons...
...To call a human an animal is considered a grave insult...
...The organization's name, of course, is the World Without War Council...
...On the other hand . . . could we bring ourselves to do nothing...
...Practically, imposition of a viable autocratic rule upon the U.S...
...DAN REGAN Director: Peace & Justice Program Villanova University Inhuman beings Berkeley, Calif...
...that is, as little damage as possible is done to major metropolitan centers which are of little strategic importance...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...His analogy between the frustration of the Irish people generated by the shameless tyranny and injustice still practiced by Margaret Thatcher's England and the same sense of futility experienced in the Bronx by our economically tyrannized neighbors is frighten-ingly accurate...
...Thinking the unthinkable is the only way we ever will make progress in disarming the nuclear threat...
...Possibly even surrender...
...population would cost the Soviets a large percentage of their forces just to maintain order...
...A second response might be a limited sanitizing of our own...
...The repugnance of the rest of the world would not be easily overcome either...
...The article provokes a response, particularly to the SAC Motto: "Peace is our profession...
...I'm sure the Pentagon has war-gamed this scenario exhaustively...
...The sun never rises over our planet Earth on a day when the so-called humane humans are not shooting or dropping bombs to kill each other...
...What is the U.S...
...What good is it to capture a factory or refinery or cropland if the whole thing is radioactive...
...One response is that of vengeance...
...Did any of them make the decision to attack...
...It unleashed also the heart-breaking memories of our war in Vietnam that Dan recalled...
...However, we have many missiles in Trident submarines, presumably invulnerable to attack, and a large bomber force which is supposed to be in the air at first warning...
...Visions of "better dead than Red" well up, as well as anger, outrage, perhaps frustration...
...It perhaps could be argued that in doing so we would be neutralizing any further Soviet threat, and the loss of innocent life is regrettable, but necessary for the greater good (lesser evil...
...Such direct economic tyranny will not affect those who paid for Reagan's election but it will surely buy America an economic atmosphere that breeds violence and facilitates an empathy with the Irish people...
...BARBARA FRANCIS Disarming thoughts Palo Cedro, Calif...
...26] are eloquent and heartfelt testimonies to this "time of the troubles...
...The strike is "sanitary...
...The Soviet objective is presumably to knock out our nuclear defenses in a "sanitizing" attack, hoping we will be unable to respond fully...
...Yet pretend you are a presidential advisor, or even the president himself...
...Certainly a massive popular uprising against the government is possible...
...probably what (Continued on page 285) Correspondence (Continued from page 258) would result is world-wide economic and political chaos...
...For, if we do, we can see that Bryan Hehir's plea for "Consistency and Human Rights" (also Feb...
...We are flirting with the extinction of the human race.The greatest amount of our tax dollars goes not to feed the poor, to cure the penniless sick, to improve the schools, to enable impoverished students to enter professions of their choice, but to fight and finance wars - deadly chemical wars which no one will survive...
...What is it that drives us to destroy everything we love and cherish most - our children and grandchildren, families and friends, this beautiful planet Earth with its rivers and oceans, woodlands and forests, rainbow-striped canyons and sky-soaring mountains...
...I was deeply moved by Dan Jackson's insightful and beautifully written article entitled "The 'Troubles' - in Ireland and the Bronx" [Feb...
...Even in our "free" country, this portion of the population has no power over the political process...
...If we do not realize that purity of ends does not justify the use of ugly means, Dan Jackson's sons will never understand his agony...
...How do you respond...
...Yet animals kill only for food...
...response...
...That knoll at Kent State...
...Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...To the Editors: Dan Jackson's reflections on "The 'Troubles' - in Ireland and Bronx" [Feb...
...But many might ask, would survival be worth it...
...Consider if you will, the following scenario: Russia launches a pre-emptive strike against the U.S., targeting our missile silos, air bases, and main strategic manufacturing...
...48 106...
...First consider the problem of knowledge...
...Though we reject this option, we must recognize its source...
...p. 270, Ross, rothco...
...As Commonweal points out, our chemical weapons budget is $1.4 billion...
...However, I truly wonder if our leaders, having made the decision to retaliate, would make a decision only to "sanitize" rather than launch everything we had in an effort to totally obliterate the Soviet Union...
...Freedom cannot be won by the slaughter of innocents - even if the butcher claims to hate our enemies...
...while five to fifteen minutes warning is available after the initial launch, it is probably only until impact is imminent that our radar and orbit tracking devices can discern the target area...
...Whether the injustices are social, political, or economic, those upon whom they are practiced often are attracted to a response of violence born of hopelessness...
...We also have good guerrilla terrain, both in our cities and countryside...
...Hotel," where Robert Kennedy was killed...
...Certainly not those who made the decision...
...enough to annihilate each other several times over...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...But we do not stop there...
...The price of victory is too expensive for either adversary...
...Copyright © 1982 Commonweal Publishing Co...
Vol. 109 • May 1982 • No. 9
