US hypocritical about policy on nuclear weapons: Analyst
Sun Dec 13, 2015 10:59AM
A new investigative report showing 33,480 US nuclear workers have died of radiation exposure over the last seven decades exposes America’s hypocrisy with regard to nuclear weapons, says an international lawyer in Indonesia.
Barry Grossman made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about the yearlong investigation by McClatchy which reveals that America’s great push to win the World War II and the Cold War has left “a legacy of death on American soil.”
The death count, disclosed for the first time, is more than four times the number of American fatalities in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Grossman said that the report should not be mistaken for a critique of America’s hypocritical policy toward other nations and its use of weapons of mass destruction which led to the death of many innocent people.
“These disclosures are of course interesting but let’s not lose sight of what this is all about. This is not a well documented criticism of the US nuclear weapons program or of America’s hypocrisy in dictating the international community’s policy stance on nuclear proliferation. Indeed, the McClatchy report concedes, almost celebrates, the fact that most Americans regard the work of those featured in this story as a heroic and patriotic endeavor,” he said.
“Of course, no mention is made in any of this sentimental waffle about the hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed and the huge expanses of territory contaminated by America’s use of depleted uranium war heads, cluster bombs and chemical weapons in other nations. After all, when it comes to tugging at people’s heartstrings and fine-tuning the US policy-making machine, only white American lives matter and even then, only those who do not whine too much about doing their patriotic duty,” he added.
“Rather than being a genuine attempt to question America’s $1 trillion, 30-year commitment to modernizing its nuclear command, by objectively highlighting the dangers faced by previous generations of workers, this piece of selective investigative journalism in fact makes a strong case for fully supporting America’s $1 trillion nuclear modernization program,” Grossman stated.
“The report is little more than a saccharine celebration of what passes in America as grassroots heroics, albeit expressed in an envelope which focuses on exposing the failure to compensate many of the almost 110,000 or so killer moms and dads who contracted life-threatening illnesses as they worked to assemble and disassemble US made weapons,” he noted.
“So what if, from the millions of Americans who have worked in the US weapons industry to make sure that innocent people can be killed around the world, some 32,000 have died from cancers supposedly contracted while doing their heroic duty. What did they expect the outcome of their murderous efforts to be? A ticker tape parade in Manhattan to honor their selfless sacrifice?” he asked.
“In any case, make no mistake about it – nobody cares about them” Grossman said, adding, “Their eventual suffering was nothing more than an unfortunate consequence of them doing their duty. The important subtext here – the US public will tacitly agree – is that people do their duty to keep America great by killing in the name of empire.”
“Moreover, by noting that the death toll among those working in America’s nuclear weapons industry is ‘more than four times the number of American casualties in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,’ this report is as likely to encourage criticism of ‘Peaceniks’ as it is to serve as a basis for questioning the deliberately cultivated, but nothing if not psychotic sensibilities of Americans who overwhelmingly support America’s über violent militarism and the war-based economy that has evolved from such lunacy,” the analyst noted.
“After all, how dare people complain about doing their duty abroad in support of the empire when so many ordinary moms and dads have given their lives quietly while working in support of the war effort at home? If anyone has any doubts about this, no doubt Donald Trump will set them straight,” Grossman concluded.
The nuclear report comes as the US prepares to upgrade its aging nuclear arsenal to the tune of $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
