Meaning of Spokane’s nuclear ban

As a war baby and a veteran, I’m puzzled by media’s disinterest in the Spokane City Council’s resolution to ban nuclear weapons materials and institute a day of remembrance for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Oddly, the controversy at the July 30 meeting was not over opposition to the insane policy of rejuvenating our musclebound and suicidal nuclear arsenal, but whether resolution supporters included appropriate Japanese and Japanese-American representation and whether Veterans for Peace are real veterans if they don’t glorify war.

The resolution passed, and it’s not about veterans or Japanese or victims. It’s about Spokane’s safety and accountability for our country’s actions, now and in 1945.

Wrong actions, criminal actions still spreading global misery and fear. My dad could have come home from the war sooner, had the U.S. accepted the mid-July surrender of the Japanese.

Instead, according to Harry Truman’s presidential papers, we delayed until we tested our atomic bombs on hundreds of thousands of civilians to show Stalin we had the ultimate weapon. That weapon, tripled in potency many times, costing a trillion dollars, has been obsolete since we destroyed Nagasaki, 73 years ago.

It’s only used for extortion, mutually assured destruction, and perpetuating conventional wars as corporate welfare. I’m sorry I didn’t know the truth until after my war crimes in Vietnam, and I pity Americans who prize their ignorance of these facts.

Rusty Nelson

Rockford