Real peace for a spiritually troubled world

In his “How to find peace when the world could trip and fall into nuclear war” (Nov. 17), Prof. Sam Hazo reminds readers of the insane consequences of nuclear war, even on the smallest scale. It is nearly inconceivable to all but the most irrational mind, that any nation’s motives, offensive or defensive, for using nuclear weapons, could ever justify the magnitude of destruction such weapons inflict.

Unquestionably, cooler heads must prevail by first seeking to deescalate even the emptiest threat of nuclear war, by nations who possess them. Any response by the world’s powers to such provocations should be resolute and measured, but not equally, or more, provocative. In this age of nuclear weapons, any out-ofcontrol snowballing of fighting word scan all too easily end up as an earth sized mushroom cloud!

Prof. Hazo correctly diagnoses that “the root of the problem is spiritual.” There is amble daily evidence to support his observation “as a people and as a government, we are less altruistic, more self-centered, more acquisitive and less generous.”

The strategy of nuclear deterrence may be a cynical substitute that should never be an excuse for not pursuing what Hazo refers to as a “creative peace”, one whose aim it is to, “make [countries] economically and even militarily interdependent in ways that would make war something in the worst interests of both.”

Yet, neither should the “deterrence … built into [the] very purpose” of a “creative peace” be one that replaces it with deference, much less appeasement.

PAUL BINOTTO Bridgeville