MB Civic

By James Carroll | Monday, May 12, 2008 | The Boston Globe

“…As World War I broke out, Henry James identified an inexorable current that had been running below international events, leading to the ‘monstrous scene’ of August ‘as its grand Niagara.’ Below the glassy upriver surface, the swift tide had been driven by habits of mind, arms merchant greed, imperial hubris, and a politics that was wholly inadequate. At the deadly cascade, nations tumbled into the most violent century in history. Writer Jonathan Schell cites the Niagara metaphor to define the still running momentum of war.

But as James wrote, humans stood on another threshold. Wars had always been fought on land and sea, but then new technologies of flight carried combat into the realm above. Airborne weapons transformed killing. Indeed, air force was the invention that made 20th century warfare catastrophic. In looking back on that development, is it only naïve to ask if governments could have agreed to ban weapons in the air? What if the dropping of bombs from the newfangled aeroplane had been outlawed? The mind reels to think of it….”…BS

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/05/12/preventing_an_arms_race_in_outer_space?mode=PF