What Goes Around Comes Around

"I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, we dropped the bomb, nicknamed 'Little Boy" which instantly incinerated 70,000 Japanese - men, women, children, birds, trees, goats, chickens, dogs, cats and horses.

The A-Bomb did/does not discriminate. It is truly a weapon of massive destruction.

And the shock and awe of Hiroshima was so impressive that we couldn't resist one more display of American power. Thus, 3 days later we nuked Nagasaki - just to drive home the point.

Of course, the devastation wrought by the A-Bomb showed the world that America was a force to be reckoned with. We were and still are the biggest bully on the playground. We've got the biggest and hardest proverbial penis in the world and the hawks and neo-cons want us to keep it that way.

Shortly after, leaders of other nations began to envy American power and rushed to acquire their own nuclear cod piece. Thus began the phallus - er I mean arms race.

According to the Nuclear Files:

"There are currently about 31,000 nuclear warheads deployed or in reserve in the stockpiles of eight countries: China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Of these about 13,000 are deployed and 4,600 of these are on high alert, i.e. ready to be launched within minutes notice. The combined explosive yield of these weapons is approximately 5,000 megatons, which is about 200,000 times the explosive yield of the bomb used on Hiroshima."

In other words, more than enough to destroy the world 1,000 times.

WHY?

We all learned from our history books - and they do not lie -- that America was forced to use the bomb after anguishing over it for months. All we wanted was peace and those damned Japanese just wouldn't see things our way. Everyone knows that war and devastation is the best pathway to peace and so we did what we HAD to do!

In fact, we have been so good at waging wars for peace for so long now that now others want to return the favor upon us!

Thanks to all of that good old American war mongering, there are now tens of thousands -- if not millions -- of people in the world who would love to see a few of our cities blessed with the same fate as Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

And I am sure many Americans will be just as fried -- just as dead -- as the Japanese.

But, such is war and boys will be boys!

In fact, being cannon fodder (AKA collateral damage) in a war between men who want to rule the playground, is one thing all of us civilians have in common. This little detail should unite all of us together in outrage at the big daddy war monger.

Unfortunately, individual citizens of the world are encouraged to see themselves as separate from others. Divisions along such lines as race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status are designed to distinguish between "them" and "us."

Maintaining those distinct categories of persons is vital to those who require our submission. Otherwise, we may start to realize we are not all that different. We would figure out that we all want pretty much the same thing in life - to live safely, strive and stay alive.

So, who benefits from our distrust of one another? Who is enriched and empowered by it?

Corporations? Political leaders? Governments? Religious Leaders?

Our willingness to fight amongst ourselves gives them "cover" as they amass more power and control unto themselves.

When will we realize we are all one people, inhabiting one beautiful planet?

When will we wake up and see that there is plenty of food, water and other resources to go around?

Today I feel particularly defeated when I think of the true scale of the problem.

As the quote from Einstein above reveals, we will probably continue to wage horrific wars until most -- if not all -- of the world is destroyed.

Happy Anniversary.