{"id":185943,"date":"2021-05-31T13:56:34","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T13:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=117348"},"modified":"2021-05-31T13:56:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T13:56:34","slug":"if-there-are-enough-shovels-to-go-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/31\/if-there-are-enough-shovels-to-go-around\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. . . . It’s the dirt that does it. . . . . If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This bit of cheery advice was offered by Thomas K. (“T.K.”) Jones, deputy undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, strategic and theater nuclear forces in a 1982 interview with Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles Times<\/em>. Jones\u2019 assurance that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union could be survived with a little sweat and ingenuity, allowing for two to four years recovery time, reflected the optimism of his boss, President Ronald Reagan, before Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev talked some sense into him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The conviction that the U.S. could win a nuclear war<\/a> was key to the nuclear policy early in the Reagan administration. Not only could such a war be survived, it would present a potential opportunity for the victor. With the deployment of Pershing II and other tactical nuclear weapons, the U.S. and the Soviets might even conduct a nuclear exchange confined to Europe, entirely outside their borders. \u201cI could see where you could have the exchange of tactical (nuclear) weapons against troops in the field without it bringing either one of the major powers to pushing the button,” Reagan suggested<\/a> in 1981.<\/p>\n

While the best hopes around Reagan\u2019s and Gorbachev\u2019s Reykjavik summit of October 1986 for the elimination of nuclear weapons were never realized, the more modest areas of agreement defined there may have at least given us extra time. Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1964 dark comedy, Dr. Strangelove<\/em> or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb<\/em> was hardly fiction at all, we now know<\/a> and it is astonishing that humanity survived the cold war.<\/p>\n

There is a resurgence of the delusional belief in the winnable nuclear war<\/a> by U.S. war planners, evidenced in the June, 2019, report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, \u201cNuclear Operations,\u201d that again threatens life on this planet. \u201cUsing nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,\u201d the joint chiefs\u2019 document says. \u201cSpecifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.\u201d In the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and T.K. Jones revealed the insanity of U.S. war plans, millions of people around the world took to the streets in protest. Their massive dissent was at least as decisive in stepping back from the brink of destruction as Reagan\u2019s and Gorbachev\u2019s d\u00e9tente<\/em>. The present relapse into madness, on the other hand, seems to \u201calarm\u201d only a few \u201cexperts.\u201d<\/p>\n

While T.K. Jones\u2019 plan to dig holes to survive a nuclear war really amounted to nothing more than incipient victims digging their own graves, international activists are giving a new, hopeful and proactive meaning to the concept of having enough shovels to survive a nuclear war. \u201cDigging for Life<\/a>\u201d is an action idea for B\u00fcchel Air Base in Germany near Cochem on the Mosel River, for July 19, 2021.<\/p>\n

At the B\u00fcchel Air Base, about 20 U.S. nuclear bombs are stored, which NATO wants to replace in the coming years with new B61-12 bombs. Around the airbase there is a highly armed fence with surveillance cameras, motion sensors and a deep concrete foundation. Previous civil disobedience actions there deliberately cut through the perimeter fence, but this time activists will not go through the fence, but under it. The activists converging on the base with shovels painted pink will not be digging holes to hide and die in. Their goal will be to reach the runway and prevent the launching of Tornado fighter bombers to practice nuclear war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a vivid picture in front of our eyes, in which each and every one can go as far as their own determination allows. You can join in digging until the police ask you to stop and hand over your shovel to another, you can peacefully continue to dig until arrested, you can picnic near the diggers and be a witness,\u201d reads the invitation to the nonviolent event. \u201cIf you plan to join in for the digging, we ask you to arrive no later than Saturday July 17th 4 pm at the peace camp to get to know each other, do a nonviolence training, make affinity groups, paint shovels and other preparations. This action is part of the international week of action from 12 \u2013 20 July of the campaign \u2018B\u00fcchel ist \u00fcberall! atomwaffenfrei.jetzt!\u2019 (\u2018B\u00fcchel is everywhere!\u2019 \u2018End nuclear weapons now!\u2019) so you could also come earlier than Saturday to the peace camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists in the United States might feel a special obligation to dig with our European sisters and brothers and it is hoped that the predicted opening of Germany to summer tourists will allow us to attend. Please contact ten.efil-rof-gniggidnull<\/span>@ofni<\/span><\/a> to register or for more information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it!”<\/p>The post \u201cIf There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around\u201d<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n

This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. . . . It\u2019s the dirt that does it. . . . . If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody\u2019s going to make it.\u201d This bit of cheery advice was offered by Thomas K. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post \u201cIf There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around\u201d<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,4332,307,1225,27139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186013,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185943\/revisions\/186013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}