NOAH: He got to the last step because he took the first step

What will it take to dry up all the fissile material powering nuclear weapons?
(Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant - Source: US Dept. of Energy)

In the six-hundred-first year of Noah's life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.

God spoke to Noah: "Leave the ship, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. And take all the animals with you, the whole menagerie of birds and mammals and crawling creatures, all that brimming prodigality of life, so they can reproduce and flourish on the Earth."

Noah disembarked with his sons and wife and his sons' wives. Then all the animals, crawling creatures, birds -- every creature on the face of the Earth -- left the ship family by family.

- Genesis 8:13-19
(translation from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson)

Poor Noah! Just imagine his feelings between the first day of the first month and the twenty-seventh day of the second month! There was dry ground -- can't you just feel his desire to bust out of that ark, where he'd been cooped up for all those months?

But of course, the voyage of the ark was not yet done. No, he and his wife and his sons and his sons' wives needed to wait until it was safe -- they didn't just need one little patch of dry ground, they needed to have an expanse of solid ground beneath their feet. And that required patience.

*    *    *

Like the voyage of the ark, the "Back From the Brink" campaign is a determined search, first of all, for a patch of dry ground. That corresponds to things like renouncing "first use" of nuclear weapons and taking nuclear weapons off alert. But it also seeks that true safe state -- like when Noah found "the Earth was completely dry." That corresponds to nuclear disarmament.

In order for us to get rid of nuclear weapons, stay free of them, there will need to be hard work and patience. The will to disarm is essential; attention to the mechanics of disarmament -- yes, and patience, patience, patience -- is what we will need to carry it out.

My understanding is that the key will be control -- forever -- of fissile materials. Long after we are done celebrating the dismantling of the thousands of nuclear warheads that currently exist, we will still be doing the painstaking work of enabling everybody to be confident that nowhere on Earth can  fissile materials that are necessary for nuclear weapons ever to be processed again. It will require all of us to understand and support the work of organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and agreements like the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.

So we must hold two ideas in our minds at the same time: the difficulty of the last steps, and the necessity of the first steps. The difficult last steps of ridding the world of fissile material must be accomplished; and we need to step back from the brink of nuclear war now.

Perhaps it is helpful to reflect on Noah, who responded to the call that said, "The first thing to do is built an ark." Even at that moment, the perceptive Noah was probably thinking, "The last leg of the journey in that thing is not gonna be pretty." Nevertheless: Noah built the ark.


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Related post:

The Age of Deception deserves close reading by anyone who wants to understand the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the body responsible for assuring compliance with nuclear treaties.

(See HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: ElBaradei's "Age of Deception")