terrifying

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Wilson" <tim_wilson at sbcglobal.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 12:21 AM
Subject: terrifying


> this is absolutely the most disturbing article I have read on the
> Indian-Pakistani conflict.
>
> If your having a good day - don't read it.
>
>

"Thoughts are now turning to the unthinkable: how the world would deal with
the aftermath of a nuclear catastrophe."
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,726488,00.html

I assume that everybody will have to care for his own stuff then, so India
and Pakistan will get nothing from the West in the aftermath of a possible
nuclear war. Nobody of the political establishment really cares for the
possible 12 million dead despite the fact that only our Western technology
has made possible the present situation:

"India Nuclear warheads: 100 to 150, including up to 20 nuclear bombs that
could be dropped from Jaguar or Mirage 2000 aircraft. The rest could be
fitted to Agni or Prithvi missiles.
Pakistan
Nuclear warheads: 25 to 50, including up to 20 bombs deliverable by F-16
fighter jets. Remainder could be fitted to Shaheen, Ghauri or Hatf
missiles."
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,726488,00.html

Under the nuclear shadow
"Tony Blair arrives to preach peace - and on the side, to sell weapons to
both India and Pakistan. The last question every visiting journalist always
asks me: 'Are you writing another book?'
That question mocks me. Another book? Right now when it looks as though all
the music, the art, the architecture, the literature, the whole of human
civilisation means nothing to the monsters who run the world. What kind of
book should I write? For now, just for now, for just a while pointlessness
is my biggest enemy. That's what nuclear bombs do, whether they're used or
not. They violate everything that is humane, they alter the meaning of life.
Why do we tolerate them? Why do we tolerate the men who use nuclear weapons
to blackmail the entire human race?"
Arundhati Roy
Observer, Sunday June 2, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4426130,00.html

Well, dear Arundhati, we are used to being blackmailed for more than 45
years now.
If I was a British citizen I would denounce Mr. Blair now. But it's not only
him:

"at least the US has blocked new arms sales to India and Pakistan. The
United Kingdom, by contrast, has done everything in its power to promote
them. Blair, who refuses to dirty his own hands, has sent the defence
secretary and the deputy prime minister to Delhi to sell Hawk aircraft. The
UK has continued to supply the spare parts for the Jaguar jets (built under
licence from the British company BAE), which India may use to drop the bomb.
Our moral leader deputes his officials to explain that if we don't do it,
someone else will.

More pertinent still, the nuclear weapons programmes in both India and
Pakistan were initiated with the help of the west. As the Nuclear Control
Institute has documented, both programmes emerged from the civilian
industry, which was kickstarted with the help of the US "Atoms for Peace"
scheme. India's first nuclear device used plutonium produced by a Canadian
research reactor and extracted in a reprocessing plant built with the help
of the US. Germany supplied tritium, beryllium, heavy water plants and
reprocessing components; France delivered uranium and fast-breeder
technology; Norway sold heavy water; the US provided enriched uranium and
several commercial reactors; and the UK distributed fuel, furnaces and the
country's first research reactor."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,727097,00.html

I said it's good news that there's water on Mars.

Otto