Wisdom Crosses Disciplines

While the wise advice embodied in this article about nuclear weapons—founded on an understanding that evil exists in the world—may appear to be unrelated to the criminal justice discipline and the issue of reentry, it is not.

First, the notion that we can abolish nuclear weapons comes from the same place that calls for the abolition of capital punishment, and the more radical one of abolishing almost all prisons, which also is a lack of recognition that there is evil in the world, there has always been evil in the world, and there will be evil in the world until Christ comes again.

Second, the professional and academic notion that we do not have to pay much attention to the Russians is discounted by the Poles who—being formerly imprisoned by the Soviets—understand the reality better than those who peer in from beyond the walls that could arise again, is analogous to our call that it takes a reformed criminal to reform criminals, as like knows like.

An excerpt.

“But above all, Mr. Schlesinger is a nuclear realist. Are we heading toward a nuclear-free world anytime soon? He shoots back a one-word answer: "No." I keep silent, hoping he will go on. "We will need a strong deterrent," he finally says, "and that is measured at least in decades -- in my judgment, in fact, more or less in perpetuity. The notion that we can abolish nuclear weapons reflects on a combination of American utopianism and American parochialism. . . . It's like the [1929] Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as an instrument of national policy . . . . It's not based upon an understanding of reality."

“In other words: Go ahead and wish for a nuclear-free world, but pray that you don't get what you wish for. A world without nukes would be even more dangerous than a world with them, Mr. Schlesinger argues….

“There's another compelling reason for a strong U.S. deterrent: the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which protects more than 30 allies world-wide. "If we were only protecting the North American continent," he says, "we could do so with far fewer weapons than we have at present in the stockpile." But a principal aim of the U.S. nuclear deterrent is "to provide the necessary reassurance to our allies, both in Asia and in Europe." That includes "our new NATO allies such as Poland and the Baltic States," which, he notes dryly, continue to be concerned about their Russian neighbor. "Indeed, they inform us regularly that they understand the Russians far better than do we."