CAN THE EMPIRE DO EVERYTHING?

On the new US nuclear weapon program and Washington’s attitude to international treaties and international law

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

[This article published in: Junge Welt 8/20/2005 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.jungewelt.de/2005/08-20/010.php.]


Given the current US threats against Teheran because of the Iranian nuclear research program, we should remember voices in the Bush administration supporting the use of “small” nuclear weapons were also heard at the beginning of the Iraq war. Thus the US hardly resolved to wage an unjust war since the notorious “N”-word came into play: nuclear weapons. An historical retrospect on their use is helpful.

Sixty years ago the US destroyed the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs. Interestingly enough, no other nation has ever used nuclear weapons. Nevertheless the plan to produce new nuclear weapons for “limited” deployment and even declare them “conventional” weapons is part of the so-called Bush doctrine. In Livermore, California, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL) works under great pressure to develop these weapons of mass destruction “for a new millennium.” In 2006, the government of George W. Bush will spend $6.63 billion on this. Assuming it can realize these plans politically, underground nuclear weapon tests as already carried out in the Cold War are also earmarked. $7.7 million are estimated for preparing these test programs in 2006 with another $126 million for the first construction projects and research projects. The actual tests should begin in 2013.

Some ask: Why all the excitement now if this first becomes concrete in 2013? What is the problem? The problem is that the United States supported the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One paragraph of that treaty imposes the obligation of negotiations on effective measures for ending the nuclear arms race and attaining a nuclear disarmament as soon as possible.” This treaty was signed in 1968 by the US government at that time and is part of US law.

How the present administration in Washington treats international agreements is hard to understand. The US used alleged violations of international law by the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein as a pretext for intervening militarily and occupying Iraq. This offense against international law shows that the US itself unscrupulously and routinely violates and ignores international treaties and international law. The sabotaging of the Kyoto-protocol is another example as well as the fact that dozens or hundreds of foreign prisoners are in US death camps are not allowed contact with heir embassies and consulates. This conduct of US authorities represents a clear violation of the Vienna treaty. But an empire does not seem worried about justice and law.

In August 2004 the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki published a joint appeal for peace. Hiroshima’s mayor Akiba criticized “the egocentric attitude of the US toward the world.” He added: “The US ignores the United Nations and the international law on which it is based when it undertakes research on building smaller and `easily deployable’ nuclear weapons.” Akiba declared: “Thus the spiral of violence and retribution is unending. The terror that intensifies potential violence is trusted.”

If this madness is not stopped, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be the beginning of what mayor Akiba called “terror intensifying potential violence” instead of being signposts to the end of terror.

The intentional fomenting of fears and the greed for profit of armament corporations are responsible for creating ever-new weapons to terrorize the whole world. Many regions are already experiencing the dawn of this new age.