I've been meaning to post this all day, but I unfortunately simply haven't had
the time up until now.

Today (September 1st) is the anniversary of the official beginning of the most
horrendous tragedy to befall human history, the beginning of World War II. It
was on this day, September 1, 1939, 59 years ago, that Nazi Germany invaded
Poland. Nothing in all of previous human history matched the cruelty and
destruction that was World War II.

Today is also the anniversary, by the oddest of chances, if you were in the
United States, of the official end of World War II. The Japanese signed the
official surrender documents on the deck of the USS Missouri. Although the
actual date of surrender was September 2nd, 1945 in Tokyo Bay, the news was
broadcast throughout the United States on September 1, due to the day
difference in the date line.

It is no coincidence that Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Peter Jennings of ABC
News, who are both about the same age as I am, speak so often and so
reverently on their newscasts about "the generation that saved the world."
That generation was our fathers.

As I've said before, if there is any real value in what we're doing as a
group, it is that we're making it much harder to recapitulate the insanity of
World War II again, even if that is wholly an unintentional consequence of
what we do. The simple act of sending one another invoices is an enormously
pacifying event, especially in a world woven together by a gobal web.

During the 1960's and 1970's, when I worked in nuclear weapons development, I
truly did not believe that I was going to live out a natural life. I believed
then, given the world situation, that the prospects were at least 50/50 that
humanity would end its reign on earth at any moment. My officemate, Dr.
Darrell Collier, who is still in the Pentagon, and I argued then in long
technical detail only about one thing: how far would we push back the
evolution of life on earth if both sides let go with their entire throw
weight? Would any terrestrial vertebrates survive? Or would it only be the
insects?

While the danger isn't yet completely gone, the rise of technology, most
especially communications satellites, spy satellites, globally available
telephony, commercial globalization and the internet, has made the prospects
enormously less than they were just 25 years ago.

The free-flow of information greatly reduces fear and sucks the life out of
propaganda -- and unfettered fear and propaganda are the first two great
horsemen that worked to create the stage for World War II.

Wirt Atmar