July 16, 1945

“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”

- Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita at the Trinity Site after the explosion of the first nuclear bomb, July 16, 1945

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the testing of the world's first nuclear device at the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico. The dawn of the nuclear age. The beginning of the end of World War II. 


Nuclear weapons have become a sort of "scourge of the age," if you will - the ultimate deterrent, the ultimate threat. The advances in science and technology that occurred as a result of the nuclear age led (directly or indirectly) to many of the technologies we enjoy today, but that isn't to say the cost has not been steep. That price includes the fact that today, we do not necessarily fear for our safety from, say, Russian nuclear weapons - but instead, we fear for our safety from "dirty bombs," or nukes stolen from another country, and used against us in acts of terrorism. 


I absolutely support our nuclear deterrent. I also believe that when we open a kind of Pandora's box, like that of nuclear weapons, we have an obligation to safeguard the contents of said box. If we don't, bad things like nuclear black markets flourish, and we put not only ourselves, but the whole world at risk. (If you're interested in learning about what happened when the nuclear black market was in its heyday, I would encourage you to read the book The Nuclear Jihadist). Should we fail in this vigilance, it is then that we will indeed "become Death, the destroyer of worlds," as Oppenheimer recognized in the first display of atomic power 67 years ago today.  


So yes, I support our nuclear deterrent. And yes, I pray for peace, and that our nuclear deterrent remains precisely that - a deterrent - and not a spectacular demonstration of force. We must remember our past - we know precisely what these weapons can do - and consider the future we want for ourselves, our families, for humankind - and allow these things to influence our present. 


+Peace and good.