Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger brings muscle to nonproliferation (I promise the post itself doesn’t have hokey Arnold jokes)

 

Well, maybe not jokes, but I couldn’t help myself with the illustration. Anyway, last week the California Governor prepared to deliver a speech at the Hoover Institution’s meeting to further the agenda laid out in the now-ubiquitously referenced A World Free of Nuclear Weapons op-ed signed by Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and Bill Perry. Arnold couldn’t be there because of the fires. Shultz read it to the assembled fissile cognoscenti, which must have been awkward because the first paragraph is devoted to praising Shultz. Some choice excerpts:

As some of you may know, I grew up in Austria. As a boy, the Red Army loomed over us from its bases in central Europe. Even as children, we all knew about the threat of nuclear war. We knew the blinding power of its flash. We knew the shape of its cloud. Like here, we had nuclear drills in our schools. When I was 18, I went into the Austrian Army for my required service. I really, really wanted to be a tank driver. This was before I had a Hummer. Although you were supposed to be 21, I talked them into letting me drive a tank. I have to say I wasn’t much of a deterrent to a Soviet attack. During lunch one day on maneuvers, I forgot to put on the brakes and my tank rolled into the river. I can’t tell you what a sinking feeling I had as I watched that tank heading backward down the bank and then splashing into the water.

A true, amusing story . . . but the reality of the times, of course, was quite serious. In 1956, the Soviets crushed the Hungarians. Then later, the Czechoslovakians.

We Austrians had three basic fears. One, that Soviet tanks might roll into Vienna the way they did into Budapest. Two, a Soviet invasion of Austria or nearby countries might bring a U.S./Soviet confrontation—with Austria getting caught in the nuclear crossfire. And three, we feared mistakes. Mistakes are made in every other human endeavor. Why should nuclear weapons be exempt? I still remember the tensions of those times. I think Austrians, wedged between the West and the Soviet empire, may have felt the Cold War more intensely than Americans. I think I actually felt less tension here in America.

(snip)

I genuinely believe we must take steps to stop the destruction of the planet’s environment. Looking at this logically, however—although we must address global warming now—its most dangerous consequences come decades down the road. The most dangerous consequences of nuclear weapons, however, are here and now. They are of this hour and time. A nuclear disaster will not hit at the speed of a glacier melting. It will hit with a blast. It will not hit with the speed of the atmosphere warming but of a city burning. Clearly, the attention focused on nuclear weapons should be as prominent as that of global climate change. After he left office, former Vice President Gore made a movie about the dangers of global warming. I have a movie idea for Vice President Cheney after he leaves—a movie about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. If you Google “global warming,” you will find 6,690,000 entries. If you Google “Britney Spears,” you will find 2,490,000. If you Google “nuclear disarmament,” you will get 116,000 entries. And if you Google “nuclear annihilation,” you will get 17,400. Something is wrong with that picture.

The more “butch” politicians bringing the spotlight on the nuclear situation, the better. As much as individual policy victories (Reliable Replacement Warhead, India deal, bunker busters, etc.) are achievable without a broad public debate, a fundamental shift in U.S. nuclear doctrine will not occur without it. The Arnolds and Kissingers signal to the electorate that disarmament as an eventual goal is acceptable even outside the Communist Party/Hollywood/Vermont.

Although I never voted for the guy, I have been thoroughly impressed with his performance as governor. Most politicians are power-hungry egomaniacs – at least Arnold doesn’t pretend otherwise. And his bipartisan (he would say post-partisan) ways are in short supply. In fact, he’d be a great running-mate for Obama.

Bill Maher brought up the Austrian’s national potential on this week’s show and asked his guests about their thoughts on the ban on foreign-born presidents. General Wes Clark (who has morphed into a ’shill for Hill’ over the last couple months, probably because he thinks she’ll pick him as veep) thought it was a good thing. You see, in 40 years, when the Chinese are ruling the world we don’t want one of them to become our president!

Yeah.

And yet another reason Arnold recommends himself as a sane politician is his “sense of humor:”

The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was joking when he said marijuana was “not a drug”, his spokesman said today.

The former Hollywood star told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though he has acknowledged using marijuana in the 70s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron.

“That is not a drug. It’s a leaf,” Mr Schwarzenegger said. “My drug was pumping iron, trust me.”

Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, marijuana, nuclear proliferation, wes clark