Once and future fears

Seventy-four years ago today, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, incinerating some 100,000 people and blasting into being one facet of the era of existential species instability.

To mark the anniversary of one of humanity's greatest atrocities and in light of the Trump administration's choice to trash the longstanding (and perhaps creaky) Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, here's Jeff Schogol who has made a journalistic career of covering the our muscle-bound military from close up.

We're all going to die.

That doesn't mean we're all going to die tomorrow, but before we delve into the United States government's withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, it's worth remembering that we are all mortal and our corporeal existence will end one day even if the world is not consumed by a nuclear holocaust or global warming or the heat death of the sun (Your daily motivation courtesy of your friend and humble narrator).

... On Friday, the United States formally withdrew from the INF Treaty. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement claiming, "Russia is solely responsible for the treaty's demise."

For defense industry, the end of the 32-year-old treaty meant to prevent Armageddon is surely more exciting than Christmas, July 4th, and the Super Bowl all wrapped up in an orgasm. Expect to see companies rolling out new lines of missiles for Prime Day; after all, nothing says "I love you" like a $500,000 million gift card for Raytheon.

... In other words, the Pentagon is free to become more lethal, and if there's one thing the U.S. military loves, it's lethality, which top civilian and uniformed officials are known to mix with baking powder and smoke it like crack cocaine. ...

Read it all.

While we persist and resist oblivion, we cannot forget.