Sad anniversary approaching...and even sadder approaching test

We’re approaching 75 years next week to mark one of the worst days in human existence, the July 16, 1945 explosion of the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site, New Mexico. Since then there were 2,055 more such explosions, two of which killed hundreds of thousands in Japan. The U.S. has led the way, detonating 1,030 of those blasts, including the two lethal ones over Japan. Eight other countries accounted for the other 1,025. But the U.S. has not detonated a nuke since 1992, an enviable record now under threat from the Trump administration. Two months ago administration officials crafting strategy for a new nuclear arms control agreement with Russia (current one expires February, 2021), proposed a U.S. nuclear test to exert leverage over Russia and China in the talks. Such a test would put the U.S. in bad company this century with….North Korea.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) even inserted a Republican sponsored amendment authorizing $10 million for such a test if requested by Trump. Fortunately, the Democratically controlled House inserted a measure in its draft of the Energy Department’s appropriation bill forbidding the use of any funds for nuclear tests. Administration arms control envoy Marshall Billingslea said the U.S. is ready to spend Russia and China “into oblivion” to win a new arms race. Neither Billingslea or his boss Trump seem to comprehend such ‘oblivion’ includes all mankind.