60 years after the "Enola Gay" flight - II

The question now after 60 years, has the "awful weapon" really brought peace?

If the 60 years of very restive peace amid unending pocket wars in so many fronts worldwide, and of various incidents of terrorism, like the Sept. 11, 2001, or 9/11 catastrophe of the Twin Towers, the answer is "No". In short, mankind hasn't learned the searing lessons!

The "cold war" may have thawed between USA and USSR with the latter's implosion in 1991 and ended their "game of brinkmanship". The long Basque drag-on conflict in Spain, the 36-years IRA upheavals in Northern Ireland, the India-Pakistan off-and-on skirmishes over Kashmir, the Israel-PLO enmity now with a long-drawn out "road map", the Russian problem with Chechnya, among other "pocket wars" may have toned down shakily.

But there are many other active warfronts. Foremost is the supposedly conquered Iraq with more than 1,800 Americans killed so far since Pres. Bush declared war on Saddam Hussein in March, 2003. Oddly, the battles are no longer eyeball to eyeball across trenches. Killings are wrought by suicide bombings, and indiscriminate hellfire in retaliation.

The "consolation" is that in all these battles, bombings and massacres, thus making the production and sale of military armament as No. 1 world industry, no atomic/nuclear weaponry has been used. And may none be used to trigger Armageddon, to God we pray!

Countries with admitted nuclear capabilities/weaponry are the USA, England, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Countries that neither confirm nor deny possessing nuclear arsenal are Israel, Iran, Libya, and also Taiwan, which has ballistic missiles.

While USA has been most vocal in dissuading other nations with "carrot and stick" ploy from keeping nuclear armament, like North Korea and Iran, which Pres. Bush lumped as comprising the "axis of evil", nonetheless, it's a question of: "Follow what I say, don't follow what I do" proposition.

It's paradoxical that Uncle Sam hectors others to diffuse weapons of total destruction, while he has the most number and sophistry of nuclear arsenal. Americans justify their discrepant posture as the topmost superpower with a world policeman's role, and as a formidable deterrent necessity for others to toe the line to maintain world peace.

There have been 525 nuclear explosions aboveground since Hiroshima and, none has been an act of war. One surmises these were explosions during testings that could have caused the global-warming and/or altered the earth's regular climactic cycles in different regions.

Setting aside "accidental" explosion, the imminent danger lies in the possibility of possession of nuclear capability by the terrorists, as the Al Qaeda. While A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who had passed on nuclear techno info and designs to North Korea, Libya and Iran is under house arrest, there's no surefire assurance that he's totally out of mischief. Moreover, since the USSR split, the disposition and security of Soviet nuclear arms appear in question.

Meantime, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose and, there are still a lot of his like-minded minions as trigger-happy to set the world on fire.

Other than the terrorists, another ticklish danger is posed by so many "flash points" that would stoke, God forbid, apocalyptic cataclysms. In Asia alone, there are the trigger-edge "flash points" between mainland China and Taiwan, between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, and between North Korea and South Korea. With Kim Jong Il at the helm of North Korea whose sanity is suspect - may pagka kalog - and who is hawkish, the situation is touchy at the least.

Thus, after 60 years, whatever world peace there has been, is loosely shaky and shifty, roiled by several hot spots. At worst, it is a restive peace on the verge of brinkmanship either to implode or explode. Or at best, to stay the wobbly course, it is hoped for mankind's sake.