To the Editor:

Back in 1979, then National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski received a middle-of-the-night phone call with the alarming news that a large-scale Soviet nuclear attack had been launched against the United States. Moments later a second call carried word that the all-out attack was underway. Convinced that the end was near, Brzezinski was seconds away from waking President Jimmy Carter to persuade him to press the button to begin a retaliatory nuclear response. But then, moments later a third call came canceling the alert and explaining that it was all a human, technical error. A training tape simulating a Soviet attack had mistakenly slipped into the actual early warning network, temporarily confusing the on-duty crew. They had taken eight minutes rather than the prescribed three to correct a near-calamitous error.

Imagine what might happen were such a mistake to occur with the current, trigger-happy Washington crew in charge — claiming authority to engage in acts of war without the congressional approval required by the Constitution. There would be only a few minutes to assess a report’s reliability and decide whether and how to respond. Recently we have had a quick decision to direct several dozen missiles at Syria, killing many civilians. The largest non-nuclear bomb ever exploded indiscriminately has incinerated many in Afghanistan. A nervous, unstable, belligerent Kim Jong Un now has responded by rattling his sabers (missiles) in North Korea. There is no apparent awareness in any quarter of the “law of unintended consequences.”

The U.S. has 7,000 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, with only 100 required to plunge the Earth into darkness, killing millions, destroying agriculture worldwide, and starving billions to death. Yet, while insisting that Iran and North Korea destroy their nuclear capability, the U.S. is disregarding its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and gearing up to “update” and expand its arsenal.

When will we wake up and realize that the only real protection against nuclear disaster is the total elimination of nuclear weapons?

Doug Wingeier

Waynesville