The recent reports that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are both reportedly committed to expanding the respective nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia should be enough to send a shiver down any spine. The possibilities on their own are a truly frightening throwback to the Cold War era, but George Takei manages to put a human face on it all with a reminder of the time nuclear weapons were actually used on the battlefield.
Takei had family in Hiroshima, Japan during the bombing in August 1945, killing his aunt and cousin along with hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens on the ground. In response to Trump’s call to expand the nuclear arsenal, Takei looked back to his family in Hiroshima and what they experienced:
Trump wants to expand our nuclear arsenal. I think of my aunt and baby cousin, found burnt in a ditch in Hiroshima. These weapons must go.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) December 22, 2016
The bombing of Hiroshima is only a small example of what today’s nuclear arsenal would do to a populace and the people that managed to survive. Hopping under a desk would only be useful for keeping you calm and giving you that false sense of security. It wouldn’t do much to actually protect you from a direct hit, followed by the rest of whatever is being lobbed in your country’s direction. Worse yet, using nuclear weapons in a first strike seemed to be something Trump was willing to keep on the table back in August.
Newly declassified briefing warned Reagan that 80 million Americans could die in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union https://t.co/AE4kt2v8mR
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) December 22, 2016
That’s worst case obviously, but still a pretty frightening aspect of the incoming Trump presidency. If there’s a desire to return to the good old days, this part of it should remain questionable.
(Via Huffington Post)