A personal reflection by Margy Kernan, member of Saint Francis Peace Through Justice Ministry.
Nestled in an Aspen grove on a mountain side overlooking the winding highway through Monarch Canyon sits a sturdy little cabin built many years ago by my parents. It is a comforting but unassuming presence along a row of modest summer homes and a couple of year-round residences. Not far from these places of refuge rests another familiar, but less comforting sight in Cascade County: a Minuteman Missile site. And only a few miles from that location, on the way up from Belt Creek, sits yet another missile site.
These are Cold War nuclear weapons installed in silos seventy feet under the ground in the 1960’s and they are aging to the tune of $482 million annually for rudimentary maintenance. The entire fleet runs on less computational power than is in ones’ smart phone. One Wyoming based Minuteman III, aged 52 years and recently serviced, contains a destructive force at least 20 times that of the atomic bomb that killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima. And it can strike anyplace in the world in roughly 30 minutes.
Throughout my life I’ve wrestled with the unsettling irony of such a destructive force planted benignly on a mountain side or in an open field. What horrors would be unleashed should one be launched intentionally or inadvertently. Furthermore, the “counterforce strategy” which emphasizes pre-emptive destruction of an adversary’s nuclear force insures that instead of six major targets in the U.S. (Washington, D.C., three nuclear bomber bases, and two nuclear submarine ports) there are over 400 land-based “bait targets.” One of them is not far from the sturdy little cabin in Monarch Canyon.
As the U.S. faces security issues such as cyberattacks and terrorism, the question arises: does the U.S. continue to maintain these nuclear weapons that are long beyond their service life, retire some and upset the global strategic balance, or plunge forward with new and even more frightening ICBMs (Intercontinental ballistic missile) and air and sea-based weapons? Land-based ICBM’s are one leg of this nuclear defense triad: nuclear capable bombers, submarines and land-based missiles. Is this strategy of deterrence the best way forward as adversary countries continue to ramp up their own nuclear arsenals? It is proposed to modernize all three legs of the triad to the tune of $1 trillion over the next few decades – the land-based ICBMs totaling at least $100 billion.
Replacing the Minuteman III is the new ICBM, named “Sentinel” by the Air Force in April. The Air Force and Army Corps of Engineers have been drawing up environmental impact and right of way studies in Wyoming missile fields to begin work in 2024 and townhall meetings held last spring focused more on land acquisition and other impacts than the concept of targeted “lure locations.”
As a Catholic I have wrestled with the polarity of war versus peace, infused throughout with the military. I grew up peripherally with the military as my father was instrumental in forecasting the weather for D Day and retired as a Lt. Col. in the Air Force Reserves. My own sensibilities have always been unsettled, yet on nuclear war I am in complete agreement with Pope Francis who has said:
*“the use of nuclear weapons, as well as their mere possession, is immoral.” Defending the idea of mutual deterrence, he says, “inevitably ends up poisoning relationships between peoples and obstructing any possible form of real dialogue.”
Bishop David Molloy, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, expressed dismay at the recent failure of international agreement at the conclusion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in August:
**“No corner of our world is untouched by growing hostilities and war. Compounded by asymmetrical warfare, cyber technologies, and the intertwined nature of our world we are one miscalculation away from catastrophe… We pray that all nations will work to foster trust over suspicion and to bring about immediate and measurable progress towards disarmament and lasting peace.”
Thank you for reading this. Your prayers for peace do count. May the Holy Spirit guide all efforts for the knowledge, discernment and courage to pursue peace.
Information for this article from “A Bang or a Whimper,” by W.J. Hennigan/Lindbergh, WY, in Time, Sept. 26, 2022.
* https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251596/pope-francis-nuclear-weapons-are-immoral by Maisy Sullivan, June 21, 2022
** USCCB Committees on International Justice and Peace: https://www.usccb.org/committees/international-justice-and-peace/nuclear-weapons
