Nuclear Weapons

A detailed Summary of Nuclear Weapons

"Gotterdammerung without the gods." This quote came from Dwight Macdonald; this was his comment on the use of the nuclear weapons on Japan. The word gotterdammerung means the twilight of the gods. After you hear the meaning of this word you will understand the meaning of this quote. This quote I believe means the power of these weapons is the like the coming down of the gods with all of their power and light, without the figurehead of the gods themselves. Now that we know the power of these weapons, we must now ask ourselves do we really need these weapons in our arsenal. There were two opposing articles in the book Taking Sides. They presented a pro and a con side to this issue. The pro side was presented in an article by Tom Bethell, titled "No Nukes America." The con side was presented in an article by George Lee Butler, titled "Eliminating Weapons Of Mass Destruction." After reading these two articles I have come up with a decision of my own, that we be revealed at the end of the paper.

To begin with, Mr. Bethell presented the pro side of the issue. His basic stand was that we do not need to get rid of nuclear weapons because other countries are not doing the same as the United States. Mr. Bethell stated that he

thinks the Untied States did at one time have too many nuclear weapons. At the rate that we are doing this we are going to wipe them all out or they will wipe themselves out because the nuclear core will no longer be active. He also states within the article that we are at an increased threat from these types of weapons. They can be bought on the black market and can be sold to terrorist groups. Mr. Bethell states that this may be one of the major reasons that we need to keep the nuclear weapons and not deplete our stockpile of what we have. He also states that since we do not allow testing therefore we do not know if our modern technology will work with the current bombs. He feels we need to make new bombs that will be compatible with the technology that we have. If an attack of nuclear proportions would happen we will not have the worry that our weapons would misfire and affect our own people.

It is my personal opinion on this issue that Mr. Butler is right. We do not need to have these weapons on full alert any more. I also agree with the idea that we are living in a world that (repeating yourself we are living in is) that is still in the shadow of the cold war. How can we not have this cross our minds as young Americans who hear stories from our parents and see in the media the horrors and the destruction that these great weapons can cause. We

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Approximate Word count = 923
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History