Remember the childhood story of Aladdin and his magical lamp? It was an Arabian Nights tale of rags to riches with wishes to make dreams come true. Yet all too often, fanciful dreams mirror real life nightmares.

To end the last great war, the United States rubbed that atomic lamp to smite Japan with the nuclear genie. Yet the genie remained free, eventually terrifying the world with nuclear annihilation and poisonous wastes to last an eternity.

Stuffing the nuclear genie back into his lamp won’t be easy. Plutonium production must end worldwide. Nuclear stockpiles must be drastically reduced. Loose nukes and waste must be fanatically guarded.

America released the nuclear genie. And America must lead to try to stuff as much of him back into his atomic lamp as is humanly possible.

Otherwise, Osama bin Laden will rub the atomic lamp to get his long-held wish, and then nuclear terror on an American city shall become our Arabian nightmare.

George Glass, Lewiston

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