To the editors:

In an op-ed putatively about not forgetting Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but actually a scaremongering piece about Iran, Russia, and North Korea (“Too Easily Forgotten,” Aug. 12), Adam M. Guren neglects even once to mention Israel’s clandestine but widely known nuclear arsenal. When was the last time Israel allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its nukes? Why hasn’t Israel signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Is the writer simply ignorant, or is he knowingly dissembling Israel’s significant involvement with illicit weapons of mass destruction? Is Israel exempt from the writer’s criticism because of its “shared values” with America (which happens to be the only country in the world to ever use nuclear weapons)? How about Pakistan and its infamous Abdul Qadeer Khan? Are they exempt from this writer’s wrath because they are allies in the U.S.’s Middle Eastern adventures? Anyone whose true concern is the existence of nuclear weapons cannot credibly fail to mention Israel, nor Pakistan.

GUSTAVO ESPADA

Somerville

August 25, 2005