Do You Believe This???

I read an article in the March 28, 2008 edition of the Star Ledger. It was titled “Nuke Inventory Is Ordered after Mistake”. This article reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates order a high-level investigation with a complete inventory of our nation’s nuclear arsenal, after it was discovered that last week that four secret nuclear nose- cone fuse assemblies for the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles had been mistaken shipped to Taiwan. The shipment to Taiwan should have been for common helicopter batteries. This error occurred 18 months ago and it was undetected until this week. Taiwan received the delivery and its officials have been contacting the U.S. over the past year to determine what to do with the erroneous items.

At one point the U.S. official called for their disposal. According to Taiwan Defense Minister Lin Chen-yi, those contacted in the U.S. for the past year about the error told Taiwan to handle the situation themselves. This is the military’s second major nuclear-related incident in less than a year. (Measures also failed last August, when the Air Force unknowingly flew nuclear warheads between North Dakota and Louisiana, losing track of them for 36 hours.) This embarrassing incident has strained relations with China and called into question the U.S. military’s ability to maintain its arsenal of catastrophic weapons. Initially investigations in the U.S. point to a labeling error.

This article could be used to explain how governments should work together to resolve issues in my classroom and the danger of a nuclear arsenal. In this case, the U.S. failed at labeling, communication and resolution, in an expedite time frame. The U.S. should be more guarded with their nuclear inventory; two incidents within a year make you wonder - who’s in charge. The Defense Secretary needs to put safeguards in place so that this never happens again; the lives of the world could depend on it. Students need to see the good and bad in our world. This will help them build on the good and eliminate the bad through voting, letter writing campaigns, peaceful demonstrations and voicing their opinions.