september 2004

hiroshima day

august 6th

Hiroshima Day is the world's most important shared anniversary. It's an opportunity to stop and reflect not only upon the Bomb's victims, but also upon the fact that our planet remains hard-wired for a quick and fiery climax. On every other day of the year, the daunting and long-term dilemma of nuclear weapons moves beneath us, out of sight, under tides of pseudo-news. This is why we need August 6. Especially as the last living witnesses to that day die off, the burden falls heavier upon us to remember and imagine what can happen in a split second on an August morning.

Last week's Hiroshima Day ......................... you wouldn't know it reading major dailies or watching TV. The New York Times, to pick just one example, neglected to mention the anniversary anywhere in its August 6 edition, but found enough ink to eulogize photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose work, the paper editorialized, is "fundamental to our understanding of the 20th Century.".......

as if we just emerged from the century of the Formally Perfect Photo Composition......., and not the century of Total War.

A.Zaitchik.NewYorkPress

Iran says Israeli atomic arsenal destabilizing region
FM calls for Israel's nuclear disarmament

By Agence France Presse (AFP) Friday, August 27, 2004

Israel's alleged arsenal of nuclear weapons is causing instability in the Middle East, and Israel should be pressured into joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),  Iran's foreign minister said Thursday.

Israel has never confirmed nor denied having atomic weapons, but it is widely believed to be a nuclear power.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his country advocates a nuclear arms-free Middle East, but "the problem is that Israel has full capability in nuclear weapons (and has) a large arsenal of nuclear weapons as well as other weapons of mass destruction."

"Every country in the Middle East is feeling insecure because of the capabilities of Israel," Kharrazi told reporters during a visit to Manila. "I believe the international community has to put pressure on Israel to become a member of NPT and ... eliminate its existing nuclear weapons."

He repeated earlier statements that Iran's nuclear technology is "only for peaceful purposes" such as energy, medical and agricultural use."