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BOOKLIST CHICAGO, IL MARCH 15TH 2002 Caldicott, Helen. The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex. Apr.2002. 224p New Press, paper, $16.95 (1-56584-740-7)
For three decades, physician Caldicott, nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, has tirelessly articulated the drastic consequences of nuclear weapons to a public kept in ignorance by their government. Moved once again by world events to disseminate hard facts in the hope of averting disaster, Caldicott presents a meticulous, urgent and shocking report on the current state and true nature of America's nuclear weapons program. She explains with chilling precision the medical effects not only of nuclear weapons themselves but also of the carcinogenic nuclear waste that already permeates our environment.
Her harrowing descriptions make it abundantly clear that to flirt with the terrible power of uranium and plutonium (which was named after the god of hell for good reason) is to risk the very "death of life". And yet the powers that be, an amalgam of arms dealers and politicians, proceed, unchallenged by a distracted and docile citizenry, according to Caldicott .
She dexterously exposes the enormous influence that weapons corporations such as Lockheed Martin have on George W. Bush's administration, then illuminates myriad facets of our hubristic and potentially apocalyptic corporate-driven nuclear scheme, from the dogged pursuit of worthless missile defense systems to the real work of the cynically named Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program - the wildly irresponsible creation of new, treaty-breaking nuclear weapons.
The Doomsday Clock, the symbol of nuclear danger, has just been set two minutes closer to midnight, so the time to take Caldicott's measured and wise words to heart is now.
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