The KC Star headline reads: Nuclear weapons are insanity. Why does KC keep producing them?
The column, a full-blown attack on the production in KC of parts for nuclear weapons, ran in The Kansas City Star on 3/31. The author is Dave Pack, who chairs the Board of PeaceWorks KC and has served on the Board for 25 years.
Dave tells readers about the local production of 80% of the electronic and mechanical parts for US nukes. The nuke factory, the KC National Security Campus, says Dave, “employs more than 7,000 people and has a budget of $1 billion per year. But we are manufacturing our doom.”
Dave gives statistics that tell a story—about 100,000 people immediately incinerated in the 1945 US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, plus thousands of deaths later from radiation. Dave comments, “Today’s nuclear weapons are much more powerful.”
Dave covers costs. Quoting the Congressional Budget Office projections for 2023-2032 costs of US nuclear forces, Dave explains, “Our share (in the KC area) is over $336 million for 2023 and almost $4.9 billion for 2023 to 2032.”
Dave asserts, “Without nuclear weapons, the United States still would have absolute military superiority over every country on Earth, and the protection of the great oceans to our east and west.”
Dave circles back to incineration: “If we hold onto nuclear weapons, most world cities face potential incineration within about an hour’s time.”
Dave ends with action, with hope: “Nuclear weapons are insanity (the line the headline-writer copied). If you want real security, work for their abolition. Let’s stop facing potential incineration now.”
Thanks, Dave!!!
See Dave’s column: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article302929894.html
