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For the first time in 80 years, nuclear war is a real possibility
The Mercury
|May 13, 2025
The urgent need for dialogue and the moral imperative to prevent nuclear conflict
EIGHTY years ago, the world witnessed the devastating conclusion of World War II with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The atomic age was born in tragedy, etched permanently into the conscience of humanity. Today, we face a chilling reality: for the first time since those horrific events, the threat of nuclear war is no longer theoretical. It is real, it is present, and it is dangerously close.
The visuals of mushroom clouds rising over Japanese cities remain one of the most harrowing symbols of human destruction.
Those bombs ended a war but launched a new era of fear, a world living under the shadow of annihilation. Yet, here we are again, closer than ever to that precipice.
In Across the River and Into the Trees, Ernest Hemingway wrote that war is fought not for peace, but for profit, for corporations, not for people. That truth echoes loudly today.
Modern conflicts are sustained not by necessity, but by greed. Armaments industries thrive, politicians posture and the media often becomes complicit, glorifying war while ignoring its cost. War, I believe, has no victors. Only victims.
Today's nuclear arsenal makes Hiroshima look primitive. Modern warheads have unprecedented destructive power and delivery speed. A single strike can obliterate millions.
This story is from the May 13, 2025 edition of The Mercury.
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