Good Guys, Bad Guys

The UN General Assembly is in session in New York and has in attendance international leaders from Barack Obama to Muammar al-Qaddafi. There were cheers for the United States, its new leader and its re-connection with the United Nations family. The Libyan leader was less well received after his 90 minute speech created havoc with the meeting schedule. A saint and a madman? The controversial president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is also in attendance. He continues to agitate the West and Israel with his anti-Jewish sentiments. An insistence on developing nuclear weapons gives him the attention he wants. The super powers - the US, Russia and China - who have the real capacity to annihilate the world are beginning serious talks about reducing their nuclear arsenals. Since the start of the nuclear age there has been an effort - beginning with scientists involved in its birth - to stop the development of nuclear arms. We are the only nation to have used nuclear weapons. Sixty four years ago. And since then the rest of the world fears our capability to destroy in such a massive, inhumane way. Why is it so reprehensible that other, more vulnerable nations, want to have equal power to defend themselves? How can we insist that countries like Iran cease their program when we already have the ability to destroy the rest of the world? I think many, many Americans, including President Obama, genuinely want to see an end to nuclear armament. But we have to be willing to take real steps in that direction and need to stop blaming other leaders for wanting to defend their citizens from the potential wrath of America. The bottom line is that there is no cause that can justify the rationale we used in 1945 to murder about a quarter of a million civilians. Weapons of mass destruction, axis of evil, terrorists . Looking at ourselves, are we not in fact seeing the face of the enemy?