Shock and Awe
Feb. 19th, 2003 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusThe first time I tried to join the Air Force, I was applying for an ROTC scholarship. I went to the local air force base with several other applicants, and they gave us a tour of the base. We talked briefly to one of the officers there, loading a jet in the hangar. My friend who I was with, much more into the whole military thing than I was, mentioned something about nukes.
The guy stopped what he was doing, looked directly at him, and very seriously told us that not everything they do is an exciting adventure. It was one of those moments when everything's quiet, and all attention was focused on the one guy speaking, quietly and intently: "About the most important responsibility we have is to make sure those birds never fly. If they *ever* get launched, we've failed America." He went on to inform my friend that there was "no room in the Air Force" for anyone who would talk about launching nuclear weapons so casually, as if discussing the weather, or excitedly, as if it would be some kind of adventure.
No room in the Air Force. Just, apparently, in the White House.
I grew up in the tail end of the cold war. I remember when people took the threat of nuclear war seriously, and understood what the possible consequences would be. It's moments like that that are brought into my memory whenever our president goes on TV to raise excitement about his new adventure.
Watching him withdraw from every important treaty sent chills down my spine. I've watched him almost single-handedly unilaterally undo the work of three decades of hard work towards non-proliferation. We have in the white house a man who can talk casually about using nuclear weapons in such a way that the Air Force wouldn't want him. So, yeah, when people tell me that the anti-war people are "really" anti-Bush, I can only reply that, really, there's no difference.
The guy stopped what he was doing, looked directly at him, and very seriously told us that not everything they do is an exciting adventure. It was one of those moments when everything's quiet, and all attention was focused on the one guy speaking, quietly and intently: "About the most important responsibility we have is to make sure those birds never fly. If they *ever* get launched, we've failed America." He went on to inform my friend that there was "no room in the Air Force" for anyone who would talk about launching nuclear weapons so casually, as if discussing the weather, or excitedly, as if it would be some kind of adventure.
No room in the Air Force. Just, apparently, in the White House.
I grew up in the tail end of the cold war. I remember when people took the threat of nuclear war seriously, and understood what the possible consequences would be. It's moments like that that are brought into my memory whenever our president goes on TV to raise excitement about his new adventure.
Watching him withdraw from every important treaty sent chills down my spine. I've watched him almost single-handedly unilaterally undo the work of three decades of hard work towards non-proliferation. We have in the white house a man who can talk casually about using nuclear weapons in such a way that the Air Force wouldn't want him. So, yeah, when people tell me that the anti-war people are "really" anti-Bush, I can only reply that, really, there's no difference.
