- And the threat to Iran
America, Israel and Saudi Arabia feel threatened from an agreement that was designed to keep Iran’s nuclear programme in check by involving IAEA to bring to light Iranian nuclear aspirations. Apprehensions over any nuclear programme can be understood. While Iran is not yet a nuclear power we know what a nuclear power is capable of and history has many lessons up its sleeves in this regard.
During WWII United States took control of Marshal Islands that lay in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The islands are a part of Micronesia which is a region of thousands of islands with a shared culture. In 1946, 167 Marshallese were forced to leave their paradise island, Bikini Atoll, for the sake of American nuclear testing programme which was widely publicised as a crusade for the good of mankind. The islanders were promised a return to their home island after humanity was well served through this scientific endeavour. All inhabitants of Bikini Atoll were shifted some 200 kilometres away to Rongerik Atoll. This was a small uninhabited island which was not able to sustain the incoming population of helpless immigrants as its ecology couldn’t support the nutritional needs in accordance with the lifestyle of the new community. The food and water scarcity at this new island was not an issue as Americans left the immigrants with a few weeks of food and water supply. American benevolence for the good of mankind!
The problem of malnutrition at the new island became severe and the good old friend, white men from America, came again with help. The islanders wanted a sustainable lifestyle and Americans could not ignore this pressing need from a small community that helped their research in nuclear testing. Hence, they dropped these “nuclear refugees” to the Kili islands this time, where the original inhabitants of Bikini Atoll live to this day.
From 1946 to 1954 Bikini Atoll was to be the test site for all kinds of nuclear weapons being dropped for the “good of mankind”. The Americans were more than happy at the success of their nuclear testing and the progress of their mad science. Small details like the promise they had made with the native islanders at Bikini Atoll did not weigh much on their conscious. Knowing well that the nuclear tests were to leave Bikini Atoll unfit for human settlement for thousands of years the Americans must have made such a promise in healthy humour and they could not care less for any backlash from such a small community of “savages”: a termed used for the islanders by US media back then.
From 1946 to 1954 Bikini Atoll was to be the test site for all kinds of nuclear weapons being dropped for the “good of mankind”
On March 1, 1945, America dropped Castle Bravo on Bikini Island: its largest nuclear weapon ever tested. Many Marshallese living on surrounding islands were exposed to the dangerous nuclear fallout due to this particular test. The Marshallese women later recalled playing with the ash of nuclear fallout after this “successful” nuclear test, only to know next morning that they could lose their hair at the mere touch of a hand (after being exposed to the dangerous nuclear debris). No precautionary campaign was ever launched by the US army to warn people of any risks associated with nuclear radiation and fallout from a nuclear explosion. After all, what good could such knowledge do to these “savages”, flung far from civilised America, in the middle of Pacific Ocean.
This was only the start of American blessings for the poor islanders whose appreciation for the packed goodies brought by the benevolent white man was to become a nightmare for their generations to come.
Today at Kili Island the misery of nuclear refugees from the Bikini Atoll still continues. More than a thousand people now live on this island which covers an area less than a square kilometre. Kili Island is lucky to be close to an American army base on Kwajalein Atoll. Early in the morning the men and women from the Kili Island are taken to do all kind of manual labour at this military base only to return home every evening to the misery of their makeshift and practically barren homeland. Kili Island does not provide much in terms of food and water supply hence it is only a blessing for these islanders to be able to find some kind of work at the American army base. The only worry is that some old folks at the island still remember the days when they lived at Bikini Atoll where they had a sustainable and healthy lifestyle coupled with the beautiful gifts of freedom, choice, identity and culture. But all of that was before the monstrous American invasion. Today, these people have no choice but to work like slaves for their American neighbours for a wage that helps them linger along into their miserable lives for a bit longer.
America, Israel and Saudi Arabia are right: nuclear power can spread havoc for humanity. Iran is also right. It cannot ignore the barbaric American attitude towards the weak and helpless and must keep itself safe through peace agreements with those who are civilised enough to know the meaning of the word “agreement” and by attaining military strength against those who live like “savages” and care not for any agreement.