Continuing the fight against nukes

It was apparent, just after the fall of Communism, that the "industrial" portion of the military industrial complex wasn't going to give up on the conflict that easily. War planners might change plans, politicians might alter their rhetoric, the world itself might breathe a bit easier as the nuclear clock eased back away from midnight. But the weapons' producers were another matter.

So it is good to see the church again, this time in Britain, stepping up to make the case against new generations of nuclear weapons. The group in Britain was advancing -- in dramatic fashion at the site of a nuclear weapons manufacturer -- the same point as that made last July by Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, former head of the Archdiocese for Military Services and now archbishop of Baltimore, to an audience of military and diplomatic officials.

Religious groups were among leaders during the past half century or so in calling attention to the immorality of manufacturing, possessing and certainly using nuclear weapons. The argument faded a bit from public discussion as the world moved away from imminent conflict. But the manufacturers are at it as if the Cold War had never ceased, a reality, say the protesters, that diminishes the credibility of nuclear powers calling on others such as Iran and North Korea to put down their arms.