We Are All Culpable
by David Krieger*, July, 1998

Originally published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Gen. Lee Butler’s critique of deterrence theory and of the continued reliance on nuclear weapons (“A Voice of Reason,” May/June 1998 Bulletin) is a well-argued, powerful and eloquent statement by a man of conscience. At the same time, it is frightening. Butler relates that objections to the calculus of mass murder inherent in deterrence theory continue to be “overruled by the incantations of the nuclear priesthood.”

Butler concludes: “It is time to reassert the primacy of individual conscience, the voice of reason, and the rightful interests of humanity.” This statement is a clear call to Americans to awaken to the crimes that are being committed in our names. A realistic view of what our government threatens in our names can be no less than a call to massive public protest on behalf of all humanity, but most of all on behalf of ourselves and our own decency as human beings.

Nuclear weapons are instruments of genocide. They incinerate human beings. The Peace Memorial Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki display gruesome evidence of the atomic bombings of those cities. At these museums one can see walls where only shadows remain after the humans who cast those shadows were incinerated.

During World War II, the Nazis put their victims into gas chambers and then incinerated them in ovens. While the Nazis took their victims to the incinerators, those who possess and threaten to use nuclear weapons plan to take these weapons—these portable incinerators—to the victims. Nuclear weapons eliminate the need for gas chambers. They provide a one-step incineration process—for those fortunate enough to die immediately.

The behavior of the Nazis leading up to and during World War II has been universally condemned. The German people have often been criticized for their failure to oppose the atrocities of the Nazi regime. How much more culpable would be the citizens of the United States and the other states that now possess nuclear weapons should these instruments of genocide be used again!

The German people lived in fear of the Nazis. The same cannot be said for the citizens of the nuclear weapons states, particularly the Western nuclear weapons states. Our silence in the face of our governments’ reliance on these portable incinerators makes us accomplices in planned crimes against humanity.

It is no excuse to say that these instruments of genocide exist only to deter an enemy. In the first place, the Cold War is over, and the United States and Russia are not enemies. More important, there is no justification for threatening to murder hundreds of millions of people in the name of national security. Deterrence is only a theory, and on many occasions, most famously the Cuban Missile Crisis, it has come close to breaking down. General Butler describes deterrence as a “slippery conceptual slope,” and points out that it “holds guilty the innocent as well as the culpable.”

The International Court of Justice found in1996 that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be generally illegal, and it could find no instance in which it would be possible to use nuclear weapons without violating the laws of armed conflict and particularly international humanitarian law. The court reaffirmed that all nuclear weapons states have an obligation under international law to achieve nuclear disarmament “in all its aspects.”

Given the immorality and illegality of using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, where is the public outrage at the continued reliance upon these weapons in the aftermath of the Cold War? Many people seem to believe that the threat of nuclear holocaust ended with the end of the Cold War, but this is far from the actual situation. Despite some bilateral reductions in the weapons stockpiles of the United States and Russia, there are still some 36,000 nuclear weapons in the possession of the nuclear weapons states, with the largest number still stockpiled by the former Cold War enemies, the United States and Russia

Worse yet, U.S. policy is still wedded to the threatened use of these weapons. In late 1997, President Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 60, which reserves the right of the United States to be the first to use nuclear weapons, and gives the Pentagon increased flexibility to retaliate against non-nuclear weapon states that might use chemical or biological weapons against the United States or its allies. This directive was prepared in secret with no public discussion, and came to public attention only because it was leaked to the press.

Another secret study that has recently come to light reveals a frightening approach to nuclear arsenals within the U.S. military command. The study, “Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence,” was prepared by U.S. Strategic Command, and was released only after a freedom of information request by a non-governmental organization concerned with security issues.

The study states: “Because of the value that comes from the ambiguity of what the United States may do to an adversary if the acts we seek to deter are carried out, it hurts to portray our selves as too fully rational and cool headed.” It continues: “The fact that some elements [of the U.S. government] may appear to be potentially ‘out of control’” should create and reinforce fears and doubts within the minds of an adversary’s decision-makers. ‘That the [United States] may become irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked should be part of the national persona we project” to all adversaries.

In effect, this study by the U.S. Strategic Command says that the United States should not only continue to base its national security on the threat to retaliate with nuclear weapons, but its decision-makers should also act as though they are crazy enough to use them. One is left with the eerie feeling that these supposedly rational planners who advocate irrationality may be just crazy enough to actually use these weapons if an opponent is crazy enough to call their bluff, or appeared to do so. Despite Butler’s clear-sighted analyses of deterrence as “a gamble no mortal should pretend to make,” military leaders in the United States and other nuclear weapon states are not giving up their reliance on their nuclear arsenals.

Butler has made many strong public pleas for nuclear weapons abolition since his retirement from the air force in 1994. In a recent opinion article, he wrote, “I think that the vast majority of people on the face of this earth will endorse the proposition that such weapons have no place among us. There is no security to be found in nuclear weapons. It’s a fool’s game.”

General Butler was also a member of a prestigious international commission organized by the Australian government, the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. This commission issued a report in 1996 stating: ‘The proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never used—accidentally or by decision—defies credibility. The only complete defense is the elimination of nuclear weapons and assurance that they will never be produced again.”

If the American people and the citizens of other nuclear weapon states want to end their role as unwilling accomplices to the threatened mass murder of entire countries, they must make their voices heard. They must demand that their governments proceed with nuclear disarmament “in all its aspects,” as called for by the International Court of Justice.

If we fail to protest our reliance on these instruments of genocide, and if these weapons are ever used, it will be “We, the People” who will stand culpable before history of even greater crimes than those committed by the Nazis. We will not have the excuse that we, like most Germans in the Nazi era, did not protest because we feared for our lives. It will be our indifference during a time when we could have made a difference that will be the mark of our crime against humanity.

Earlier this year more than 13 million signatures of Japanese citizens were added to the Abolition 2000 International Petition. Each of these signatures represents a “voice of hope” that we can end the nuclear weapons era. We are now setting out to match this effort in the United States and in the other nuclear weapon states. If you would like information on how you can become involved in this campaign, visit the Abolition 2000 web site (www.wagingpeace.org/Abolition2000/index.html), or write to Abolition 2000, c/o Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 121, Santa Barbara, California 93108.

"We Are All Culpable" appeared in the Letters section in the 1998 July/August edition of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. David Krieger is the president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). He is the co-author of Choose Hope, Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age (Middleway Press, 2002).