Donald Rumsfeld, was confirmed as Secretary of Defense with barely a whimper from the media. Rumsfeld’s career in public service has been a lengthy one including serving as a former ambassador to NATO, a Congressman, and Secretary of Defense under the Ford administration from 1975 to 1977. But Rumsfeld’s claim to fame is that he headed a 1998 Congressional panel that identified a growing threat of ballistic missile attack from rogue nations such as North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. Identifying the possibility of a real threat in the next five years, the report endorsed the development of a ballistic missile defense system to protect the U.S. from such attacks.
America should want to protect itself from rogue nations bent on wreaking havoc. Who doesn’t want to raise a shield against the mistakes and intentions of a dangerous world? But aside from the fact that most of the intelligence community believes that such a threat does not exist and will not for at least fifteen years, there is also one serious problem with a national missile defense system: It doesn’t work.
In the last two decades alone, the United States government has invested over $130 billion on Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” dream. With Bush at the helm, the U.S. appears poised to invest billions more. What has $130 billion and the valuable time of the military-industry complex given us? A system that is unable to reliably shoot a single, low-speed missile out of the sky.
Nothing suggests that this system will work. The optimism exhibited by its advocates distorts the truth. The military has had to admit that the Patriot missile defense system, which was initially her…
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…ses the treaty as “ancient history.” At a time when Russia is becoming increasingly angry with the U.S.’s imperialist actions ‚ so much that they have threatened to withdraw from future arms control talks ‚ the last thing the U.S. should do is make an enemy out of a nation with one of the world’s largest nuclear stockpiles. There are many serious threats to national security that demand our attention.
In the post-Cold War era, the answers are complicated and require careful consideration. Unfortunately, Rumsfeld and the Bush administration have chosen a winning political sound byte which fails miserably in real life. We should focus on worldwide arms reduction. If Rumsfeld has his way, we may live in a far more dangerous world of anxious nuclear powers that engage in offensive-defensive arms races and keep their fingers on the nuclear button.
Power in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein
Power is a defining feature of oneself for it provides meaning or substance to one’s internal being. Power allows a person to have control of his/her destiny; but without this spark of control one becomes lost in the sublime and unknown realities of life. In the novel Frankenstein, Victor defies the confinements of his restricted power and uses sublime nature as an extension of himself to regain control. With a “spark of electricity” he creates life from raw, uninhibited nature. Ironically, his desperate attempt to regain control through his creation ultimately creates chaos. Both “the creature” and Victor’s power become characterized by a tension between nature and nurture; therefore identifying each of their chaotic existence. The types of power which are represented by metaphors of fire in the novel, shed light on the nurturing power of familial bonds (hearth) and the uninhibited power of nature (wild chaotic fire). Therefore the presence of power as the existence of fire and the “domestic circle” represents the creation of an identity as the conflict between uncontrollable power and bounded/constrained power.
In the beginning Victor creates the creature to decipher his identity and gain a sense of power within the family circle. He struggles for a flame of power that is masked by the enclosed “domestic circle” that he has been accustomed to. This is demonstrated by the passage “Such was our domestic circle, from which care and pain seemed for ever banished” (24); the circle bounded Victor in a safe and secure domain. His carefully structured and secure reality was enclosed in a reciprocal nature prohibiting Victor from exploring the sublime qualities of life. His personal identity became hidden and could not be separated fr…
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…fe, comfort, and power to the creature in the end would be its demise.
Throughout the novel, it is apparent that Victor and the creature struggle to gain a sense of power and control in order to understand their chaotic existence. Power, which can take many shapes and forms, becomes the defining characteristics of the creature and Victor. Through the creature’s understanding and desire for the reciprocal power of familial bonds he aspires to destroy and diminish the power his creator possesses. In the “spark of being” from his creation, the creature becomes an uncontrollable fire exhibiting revenge and hatred. The creature’s misguided mission becomes fueled with a desire to destroy Victor’s “domestic circle.” Ironically, the creature’s desire for a bounded domestic power leads him to his creator, Victor, which in the end the creature destroys leaving him powerless.