MUSHROOM CLOUD HAS SILVER LINING

What with the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, we are frequently reminded of the the horrific potential of nuclear weapons:

The Hiroshima bombing killed more than 140,000 people either immediately or in the months that followed from horrific burns or radiation.

The United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on August 9 on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people.

The Japanese death toll must be balanced against the need to end the war quickly:

Several American historians led by Robert Newman have insisted vigorously that any assessment of the end of the Pacific war must include the horrifying consequences of each continued day of the war for the Asian populations trapped within Japan's conquests. Newman calculates that between a quarter million and 400,000 Asians, overwhelmingly noncombatants, were dying each month the war continued. Newman et al. challenge whether an assessment of Truman's decision can highlight only the deaths of noncombatant civilians in the aggressor nation while ignoring much larger death tolls among noncombatant civilians in the victim nations.

No matter how you look at it, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings saved far more lives than they ended. Try explaining that to the Greens, who think Hiroshima is reason enough to renounce nuclear power and end uranium mining:

Australian Greens Senator for Tasmania Christine Milne today called on Australians to reject nuclear power as an option for addressing climate change and instead to maintain a passion for peace and disarmament.

"Today the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the United States bombing Hiroshima, instantly killing more than 70,000 people and condemning tens of thousands more to death from cancer in the months and years that followed," Senator Milne said in Hobart.

"In Australia the Coalition government is expanding uranium mining which feeds the international nuclear energy industry and risks being diverted for weapons use.

"John Howard's grab for the Northern Territory's uranium can only mean exports for China. It is code for short-term gain and long-term pain," Senator Milne said.

"The Australian Greens reject a nuclear-fuelled future. It is not a choice between coal and uranium. The world must move beyond both.

"Hiroshima Day reminds us that nuclear power is never the answer. We should be preparing for peace, not war."

I'm all for "preparing for peace", after we've prepared for war, you know, just in case.