U.S. Army photo
Nuclear test at Bikini Atoll.

Boom of weapons industry

The century dawned with dozens of brushfire wars and a reliance on smokeless powder and rapid-fire "machine" guns, an apt description for an industrial age. The weapons industry boomed with the introduction of two world-wide wars, and the stakes grew higher until it became possible to wipe out the entire planet, except for algae and cockroaches. Everything peaked with the tactical use of two atomic weapons in Japan. The use of these weapons divided citizens into two camps; those who remember the dropping of the bombs as the end of the most vivid and exciting period of their lives -- these are the people who have run governments until recently -- and those who saw the explosions as the dawn of a new age, one filled with potential Armageddon. Despite being toe-to-toe on the nuclear brink on several occasions, the world has retreated to the concept of brushfire and gang warfare, a sign that cold war boundaries are evaporating.

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Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin

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