Is “Modernization” Good for Nebraska?
by Paul A. Olson
Published in the Omaha World Herald’s Midlands Voices on March 28, 2023
During the height of the Cold War, Pres. Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev stated together, “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” That mantra has been the central portion of our nuclear policy for about 40 years now. However, this commitment from the Russian side and from the US has been fraying, much to the hazard of Nebraskans.
In the Ukrainian war, Mr. Putin has hinted that he will use tactical nuclear weapons. While President Biden and others in the Administration have been cautious and circumspect on this issue, one can’t discount Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons could lead to unpredictable escalation up to and including US use of nuclear weapons, including those based in five NATO countries.
Nebraska is not in a good position to face a nuclear exchange though our congressional representatives have been quite enthusiastic about new nuclear weapons. Recently (Dec 15, 2022), Sen. Deborah Fischer announced that she and other Republicans had fought for the 2023 defense spending bill that “modernizes our aging nuclear deterrent, and bolsters our national security.” But Nebraska is still a prime target for any nuclear exchange, deterrent or no deterrent. The US military knows this even if the civilian population does not.
For example, only a few years ago, the military moved into a $1.3 billion Command and Control Facility at Offutt Air Force Base designed to survive the initial blasts of a nuclear war as well as electronic impulses resulting from nuclear blasts. Such a building would not be built if the Omaha/Offutt area were unchallenged. Western Nebraska Is “Modernization” Good for Nebraska? is a primary nuclear target because of the modernization of the silos filled with Minutemen III missiles “capable of flying more than 6,000 miles at up to 15,000 miles per hour,” each carrying “a nuclear warhead 25 times as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II.” The Hiroshima bomb killed more than 150,000 people including those that died, and are still dying, from radiation sickness. Minuteman III missiles will be replaced in the late 2020s with even more lethal Sentinel missiles, designed to last until 2075. Western Nebraska between Kimball and Scottsbluff, having 80 missile silos, is a long-term national nuclear sponge area; as General James Mattis opined in 2017, the nuclear “sponge” areas have sparse population where nukes can be buried so deeply underground that many enemy nuclear bombs would be required to take them out. Western Nebraska is such an area.
Senator Fischer believes that the modernization efforts make the United States stronger. They will make Nebraska different economically. Kimball City Administrator Annette Brower, realizing that the strengthening efforts will come soon, is seeking to receive state help to accommodate the dislocation that the trillion-dollar expenditure near her town will create as its population and economy expand.
Undoubtedly the expenditures on nuclear “modernization” to increase the lethality of our arsenal will stimulate the economy in Kimball and Western Nebraska for a time as nukes have made Omaha a thriving city in the last seventy years. But at what cost? Few weapons have ever been built that have not also been used. Is the Nebraska that “feeds the world” also to be the Nebraska “that kills the world”? Windmills generating electricity to help with climate change have already been forbidden because of the silos. What does it profit us to gain the nukes and lose our souls? We need President Biden, with pressure from Senator Fischer, to exercise new leadership. The G-7 summit in Hiroshima, May 19-21, will be an opportunity to spotlight the need for progress on disarmament. Nebraskans should communicate before then with concerned fellow Americans, with Japanese friends, and with other international colleagues to make this event both remember the past and create a different future.
They should tell President Biden and Senator Fischer both to work harder to institute negotiations with Russia for further nuclear weapons reductions, and stop the rush to destruction embodied in the upgrade of land-based nuclear missiles in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. Moreover, our elected officials should build support for House Resolution 77, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, to change important nuclear policies in favor of reducing dangers and supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, supported by 122 countries around the world. Annihilation is not inevitable, if we take action to avert Armageddon.
We urge you to contact your US Representatives and the White House and ask them to support House Resolution 77 in order to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and oppose any nuclear modernization to make Nebraskans safer not less! The White House- whitehouse.gov/contact/ Comment line: 202-456-1111 Rep. Mike Flood District 1- https://flood.house. gov DC office 202-225-4806 Lincoln office 402- 438-1598 Rep. Don Bacon District 2- https://bacon.house. gov DC office 202-225-4155 Rep. Adrain Smith District 3- http://smith.house. gov DC office 202-225-6435 Sen. Deb Fischer- www.fischer.senat.gov DC office 202-224-6551 Omaha office 402- 391-3411 Lincoln office 402-441-4600 Sen. Ben Sasse- www.sasse.senate.gov DC office 202-224-4224 Lincoln office 402-476-1400
Published in the Omaha World Herald’s Midlands Voices on March 28, 2023
During the height of the Cold War, Pres. Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev stated together, “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” That mantra has been the central portion of our nuclear policy for about 40 years now. However, this commitment from the Russian side and from the US has been fraying, much to the hazard of Nebraskans.
In the Ukrainian war, Mr. Putin has hinted that he will use tactical nuclear weapons. While President Biden and others in the Administration have been cautious and circumspect on this issue, one can’t discount Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons could lead to unpredictable escalation up to and including US use of nuclear weapons, including those based in five NATO countries.
Nebraska is not in a good position to face a nuclear exchange though our congressional representatives have been quite enthusiastic about new nuclear weapons. Recently (Dec 15, 2022), Sen. Deborah Fischer announced that she and other Republicans had fought for the 2023 defense spending bill that “modernizes our aging nuclear deterrent, and bolsters our national security.” But Nebraska is still a prime target for any nuclear exchange, deterrent or no deterrent. The US military knows this even if the civilian population does not.
For example, only a few years ago, the military moved into a $1.3 billion Command and Control Facility at Offutt Air Force Base designed to survive the initial blasts of a nuclear war as well as electronic impulses resulting from nuclear blasts. Such a building would not be built if the Omaha/Offutt area were unchallenged. Western Nebraska Is “Modernization” Good for Nebraska? is a primary nuclear target because of the modernization of the silos filled with Minutemen III missiles “capable of flying more than 6,000 miles at up to 15,000 miles per hour,” each carrying “a nuclear warhead 25 times as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II.” The Hiroshima bomb killed more than 150,000 people including those that died, and are still dying, from radiation sickness. Minuteman III missiles will be replaced in the late 2020s with even more lethal Sentinel missiles, designed to last until 2075. Western Nebraska between Kimball and Scottsbluff, having 80 missile silos, is a long-term national nuclear sponge area; as General James Mattis opined in 2017, the nuclear “sponge” areas have sparse population where nukes can be buried so deeply underground that many enemy nuclear bombs would be required to take them out. Western Nebraska is such an area.
Senator Fischer believes that the modernization efforts make the United States stronger. They will make Nebraska different economically. Kimball City Administrator Annette Brower, realizing that the strengthening efforts will come soon, is seeking to receive state help to accommodate the dislocation that the trillion-dollar expenditure near her town will create as its population and economy expand.
Undoubtedly the expenditures on nuclear “modernization” to increase the lethality of our arsenal will stimulate the economy in Kimball and Western Nebraska for a time as nukes have made Omaha a thriving city in the last seventy years. But at what cost? Few weapons have ever been built that have not also been used. Is the Nebraska that “feeds the world” also to be the Nebraska “that kills the world”? Windmills generating electricity to help with climate change have already been forbidden because of the silos. What does it profit us to gain the nukes and lose our souls? We need President Biden, with pressure from Senator Fischer, to exercise new leadership. The G-7 summit in Hiroshima, May 19-21, will be an opportunity to spotlight the need for progress on disarmament. Nebraskans should communicate before then with concerned fellow Americans, with Japanese friends, and with other international colleagues to make this event both remember the past and create a different future.
They should tell President Biden and Senator Fischer both to work harder to institute negotiations with Russia for further nuclear weapons reductions, and stop the rush to destruction embodied in the upgrade of land-based nuclear missiles in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota. Moreover, our elected officials should build support for House Resolution 77, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, to change important nuclear policies in favor of reducing dangers and supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, supported by 122 countries around the world. Annihilation is not inevitable, if we take action to avert Armageddon.
We urge you to contact your US Representatives and the White House and ask them to support House Resolution 77 in order to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and oppose any nuclear modernization to make Nebraskans safer not less! The White House- whitehouse.gov/contact/ Comment line: 202-456-1111 Rep. Mike Flood District 1- https://flood.house. gov DC office 202-225-4806 Lincoln office 402- 438-1598 Rep. Don Bacon District 2- https://bacon.house. gov DC office 202-225-4155 Rep. Adrain Smith District 3- http://smith.house. gov DC office 202-225-6435 Sen. Deb Fischer- www.fischer.senat.gov DC office 202-224-6551 Omaha office 402- 391-3411 Lincoln office 402-441-4600 Sen. Ben Sasse- www.sasse.senate.gov DC office 202-224-4224 Lincoln office 402-476-1400
