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Nope, a Nuclear Iran's Not a Threat but We're Stockpiling Thermal Burn Provisions Anyway
(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Nope, a Nuclear Iran's Not a Threat but We're Stockpiling Thermal Burn Provisions Anyway

Health and Human Services is stockpiling millions of dollars' worth of thermal burn medical supplies meant for injuries sustained in radiological and nuclear attacks. If a nuclear Iran isn't dangerous, what gives?

As the Second World War was began its retreat to the history books, a new threat emerged.

(A threat, incidentally, that Gen. George S. Patton wanted to deal with right alongside defeating the Nazis—but that’s another story.)

The Soviet Union had its nuclear weaponry pointed right at us—and in response, we had ours pointed right at them. Missile silos deep in the ground and spread throughout the country were at the ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From start to launch was just 58 seconds for the massive Titan II missile, which was “capable of delivering a 9-megaton nuclear warhead to targets more than 6300 miles (10,000 km) away in about 30 minutes.”

The world could have literally ended with one phone call and two keys.

(AP Photo/Dave Martin) (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

There really wasn’t much you could do, outside of maybe having access to a fallout shelter. Many children, including my mother, remember vividly the “Duck and Cover” drills they’d perform at school, futilely ducking under flimsy school desks and covering the backs of their necks with their hands—as if that would somehow spare them from the effects.

As silly as it seems, it was a way for the American public to “deal” with the very real threat of nuclear warfare. At least you felt like you were doing SOMETHING.

So how exactly does one react when it’s abundantly clear that the same kind of attack is not only a very real threat in the 21st century, but that it’s being prepared for by a government that has simultaneously spent copious hours convincing its citizens that there's no threat?

This past week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is actively enhancing “the available treatment options for disaster response” by adding four kinds of treatments to the Strategic National Stockpile.

The disaster response HHS is preparing for (to the tune of nearly $450 million dollars)? The “burn injuries resulting from radiological and nuclear threats.”

Injuries from a nuclear attack are almost beyond comprehension. Assuming you survive the “shock wave, enormous amounts of heat, and lethal ionizing radiation” from the initial blast, you are likely to be severely burned, among other present and future injuries.

“With only 127 burn centers nationwide,” notes the HHS, “a mass casualty incident of this scale could easily overwhelm the nation’s burn care infrastructure.”

Wait a minute.

Didn’t President Barack Obama say that we didn’t have anything to fear from a nuclear deal with the world’s preeminent state sponsor of Islamic terror?

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 27: In this handout photo provided by the White House, President Barack Obama speaks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during a phone call in the Oval Office September 27, 2013 in Washington D.C. Getty Images  In this handout photo provided by the White House, President Barack Obama speaks with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during a phone call in the Oval Office September 27, 2013 in Washington D.C. Getty Images

Specifically, that we “negotiated from a position of strength and principle” and that “we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in this region”?

It begs the question: if the threat is neutralized (by handing a terrorist state nuclear capabilities, oddly enough), isn’t nearly $450 million dollars in additional thermal burn response materials a tad overkill?

If nothing else—it’s certainly an interesting time to increase our stockpile of response materials.

Here’s the thing.

Iran IS a threat, and the president knows it. There is absolutely no pair of rose-colored glasses pink enough to un-see the horrors that Iran has perpetuated; to un-hear the endless threats of continued violence and destruction levied against the United States and Israel, even after landing the geopolitical deal of a lifetime.

And yet—the president continues to forge ahead, while the government under his watch quietly makes preparations to deal with the consequences.

(For the record, I’m not making an assumption about HHS' actions. I’m not grafting in the opinions of another commentator. Go and listen to the HHS in their very own words: this increase in stockpiled disaster materials is in DIRECT response to the threat of mass causalities perpetrated by nuclear weapons.)

You see, this is about President Obama’s legacy. This is about laying claim to an unprecedented nuclear deal in the Middle East as he exits office. This is about his belief that he’s the great equalizer—lessening the status of the United States by weakening our military and allowing our foes to walk all over us, while laying out the proverbial red carpet for the rise of the less powerful.

What else explains an open willingness to brush reality under the rug?

What else explains his disdain for our ally Israel, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands alone on a world stage—pleading for us to listen, and staring down the world’s cowards in utter, uncomfortable silence?

It may be the truth, but it doesn’t jibe with the worldview the president holds. Thus, it becomes the inconvenient truth; a truth so offensive that the president actually pulled Secretary of State John Kerry, and Ambassador Samantha Power from the United Nations General Assembly during Netanyahu’s blistering, pointed speech.

This is our current reality: Iran is “spending billions of dollars on weapons and satellites” while continuing to openly call for the destruction of Israel and the United States; meanwhile, we snub Israel while stockpiling post-nuclear medical response materials.

Here’s the deal: if our government can at least inwardly admit there’s a threat (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of additional medical stockpiles), isn’t it ridiculous to accept their refusal to outwardly admit the same?

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com (a political commentary blog), and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show (TheBlaze Radio Network, Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m. ET). She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

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