In the Grand Forks Herald today is an op/ed from Union of Concerned Scientists flak Robert Nelson (UCS managed to get Fargo Democrat Carolyn Nelson to slap her name on the by-line as well for some local flair) who is applauding Senator Byron Dorgan for his request for a thorough review into the nuclear mishap which took place at the Minot Air Force Base.  Which is understandable as that situation should be reviewed (though I’m sure the Air Force brass didn’t need a grandstanding Byron Dorgan to tell them that).

The other intent of the op/ed, aside from sucking up to Byron, is to encourage the Senator to oppose President Bush’s push to upgrade this country’s nuclear weapons arsenal from his position on the pertinent Senate appropriations committee.  This attempt by the UCS to exert influence over Senator Dorgan should trouble each and every citizen of North Dakota for two reasons.

First, the UCS’ anti-nuclear agenda is one not shared by most North Dakotans.  According to the UCS, America would be “safer” without a nuclear arsenal, but that view (shared by many on the far-left of America’s political spectrum) is predicated upon the idea that we don’t have a right to have so many nuclear weapons because other countries don’t have them and that America does intimidates them.  But aren’t we the “good guys?” Certainly we shouldn’t be in the habit of angering our international neighbors if we can help it, but the truth is that countries all over the globe have nuclear weapons.  And as long as other nations have them, we should have nukes too and should keep our nuclear arsenal in good repair and up to date.

The UCS subscribes to some sort of utopian world view which would have us believe that by ridding ourselves of our nuclear weapons other nations will do the same, and we can all live in peace.  Which would be a nice thing to believe, but it just isn’t true.  If we were to divest ourselves of our nuclear capabilities certain other interests would see it as an opening.  An opportunity to take down a weakened rival, not a prompt for peace.  What’s more, the maintenance of the nuclear arsenal already stationed in North Dakota is an important part of the mission of this state’s military bases.  If those nukes went away, so would a lot of the reason for the existence of our bases.  And I know how passionate most North Dakotans are about keeping our military bases.

Second, the UCS’ rather extremist agenda doesn’t just extend to nuclear weapons.  They also oppose the use of nuclear power for energy generation.  With the entire nation looking for ways to produce energy without produce a lot of pollution, nuclear energy is an alternative that comes up a lot.  And North Dakota is in a prime position to provide that kind of power, but if Senator Dorgan becomes susceptible to the manipulations of groups like UCS he could prevent nuclear power from coming to this state.  Which would, in turn, prevent the jobs and economic stimulus that would go with those nuke plants from coming to the state as well.

I think we, as North Dakotans, need to tell Senator Dorgan to ignore the overtures of groups like UCS and do what’s best for North Dakota, and America, when it comes to nuclear issues.  One easy way is to use this web application the NDGOP has set up to contact our elected leaders.