Noam Chomsky: How the bin Laden raid could have led to nuclear annihilation - Salon.com
If some extraterrestrial species were compiling a history of Homo
sapiens, they might well break their calendar into two eras: BNW (before
nuclear weapons) and NWE (the nuclear weapons era). The latter era, of
course, opened on August 6, 1945, the first day of the countdown to
what may be the inglorious end of this strange species, which attained
the intelligence to discover the effective means to destroy itself, but —
so the evidence suggests — not the moral and intellectual capacity to
control its worst instincts.
Day one of the NWE was marked by the
“success” of Little Boy, a simple atomic bomb. On day four, Nagasaki
experienced the technological triumph of Fat Man, a more sophisticated
design. Five days later came what the official Air Force history calls
the “grand finale,” a 1,000-plane raid — no mean logistical achievement —
attacking Japan’s cities and killing many thousands of people, with
leaflets falling among the bombs reading “Japan has surrendered.” Truman
announced that surrender before the last B-29 returned to its base.
Those
were the auspicious opening days of the NWE. As we now enter its 70th
year, we should be contemplating with wonder that we have survived. We
can only guess how many years remain.
Noam Chomsky(Credit: fotostory via Shutterstock)