War

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This is the second in a series of articles compiling the US Army guide to Northern Ireland during World War Two. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor the US agreed to take over the defence of the region to free up British troops to fight in North Africa and the Middle East. It also gave the US the time to complete invaluable military training before entering the war in Europe. This was the manual given to the first officers to arrive in Belfast on 23 January, 1942.

The first article outlined the differences between the North and South of Ireland as well as the two key rules for any visitor:

(1) Don’t argue religion
(2) Don’t argue politics

This excerpt describes the country: the geography, climate and feel of living in Northern Ireland.

This guide was prepared by the Special Service Division, War and Navy Departments, Washington DC
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By Jack Hamilton, 9 Feb, 2012

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In this article, the author praises Mikhail Gorbachev’s renewed call for nuclear disarmament and discusses some of the myths surrounding nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence. Drawing on psychological and psychoanalytical writings he concludes that denial is making us accomplices of the greatest atrocity known to civilisation: failure.

By David J. Franco, 20 Oct, 2011

This morning I read Mikhail Gorbachev’s renewed call for nuclear disarmament. In his article A Farewell to the Nuclear Sword of Damocles former USSR President and artifice of the Perestroika warns that ‘by failing to propose a compelling plan for nuclear disarmament, the US, Russia, and the remaining nuclear powers are promoting through inaction a future in which nuclear weapons will inevitably be used’[1]. As much as I was happy to read that Gorbachev is determined to continue the job he started as a man of power, I experienced a mixture of unhappiness and distaste upon reading the following commentary left by one of the readers:

‘The genie is out of the bottle, and cannot be put back inside.

Nuclear weapons ended WWII and kept the world from WWIII. So long as nations have these weapons, there will not be another World War. The presence of these arms has saved millions of lives. For example, they maintain the relative peace between India and Pakistan – because neither one wants to be bombed. I hope, really hope, that they will never be used, and that there will come a time when they are not needed or present.

As long as humankind insists on not living together in peace, these weapons are needed. I see little hope of changing human nature in the near term.’

—InPEC – International Politics, Energy & Culture

An independent journal on international politics, energy and culture.

Archive

A Pocket Guide – The 1942 US Army Booklet on Northern Ireland – Part 2

Farewell to Nuclear Weapons or the Failure of Civilisation