Rhetoric of Fear The Death of the California Dream Health Care in Perspective The Discipline Leave No Child Behind No Daddy, No! Unconditional Equal Justice under the Law Thank God I Am Not A Woman Infallible "Don't ask, don't tell" Thou Shalt Not Kill Irreconcilable Differences My Will Positive Reinforcement Changing My Name After Sixty Years Copyright © 2000-2009 Thomas E. Rosenberg. All right reserved. Essays may be reproduced with written permission. tomr@inaword.org

The elimination of negative words brings clarity to speech Unconditional Wherever the President travels he is accompanied by an agent who carries a black briefcase that contains all the codes for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The president must give the final approval for the use of nuclear weapons. In my day, during the Korean war, every Marine Corps officer was taught that nuclear weapons were a cornerstone of America's defense; that the US' overwhelming arsenal and sure retaliation was a deterrent to a nuclear war. This is the rational given for the proliferation of nuclear weapons since the end of World War 11. Every world power has a nuclear arsenal but only the United States has used the bomb. Near the end of World War II, one word defined a policy that delayed reaching a peace with Japan. That word was unconditional, as used in unconditional surrender. The United States knew, through deciphered messages, that the Japanese had instructed their envoy in Moscow to ask the Russians to mediate an honorable peace. Japan's leaders told their Moscow envoy "We cannot consent to unconditional surrender. So long as the enemy demands unconditional surrender we will fight . . . " An honorable peace was defined by the Japanese as their keeping, in a ceremonial sense, the emperor. Japan was, for all intent, a defeated nation. There was much anguish within military, scientific and political circles about using a weapon that would incur high civilian casualties. President Truman's decision to drop an atom bomb was political. Russia had overrun Eastern Europe and claimed the occupied countries as being under their sphere of influence. The United States was pressing for free elections in these occupied countries. In July of 1945, the Russians had been told, at Potsdam, that the United States had a super weapon. The bombs were used to stop Russia from overrunning Europe. The war slogan "unconditional surrender" was used by Truman and Truman's Secretary of State, James Byrnes to justify the use of the bomb. Some 350,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the explosions and radiation. When peace came, the terms of surrender allowed Japan to keep its emperor. This is well known to leaders in the middle and far east. Israel has a nuclear arsenal. Referring to stalled disarmament talks with North Korea, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in October, 2009 “We will never accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state . . . the U.S. will continue to provider extended deterrence, using the full range of military capability, including the nuclear umbrella, to ensure ROK’s (Republic Of South Korea) security.” The U.S. has 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea, 50,000 in Japan and 20,000 on Okinawa. This is in addition to the troops deployed in Afghanistan. The protests by the United States, a country that started a war with Iraq on the false premise that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction; and, as the only country to drop atom bombs makes their objection to Iran and North Korea becoming nuclear powers come across as hypocritical. If, indeed, the presence of nuclear weapons is a deterrent to war, let the smaller nations develop nuclear power. The threat of nuclear destruction will hasten the peace process.