France and the U.S. work together, why can't we?

At a time when "Freedom Fries" and "I hate France" stickers abound, the United States sent some extra bomb-grade plutonium to France for assembly. After processing the plutonium, France will ship it back to the United States.

The risks of using plutonium for energy are huge, but America is going to try anyway, with the help of a country we shunned when it refused to support the war in Iraq. America and France are working together. Though working with plutonium this way is dangerous and the United States really should not have that much extra material, especially in regards to the federal deficit, this cooperation should be an example for all the Americans who continue to hate France because of its view on the preemptive war in Iraq.

Though many U.S. citizens realize the rivalry with France for the silly reasons pertaining to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is ridiculous, others choose to extend their bitterness towards the country by sustaining "anti-French" thought. While they worry about disliking the French, the American government is working with the French to ready this plutonium, which was sent to France last week on British transport ships.

The ships are carrying enough plutonium to create 40 nuclear warheads. The British military is protecting the material on its two-week trip but while it is overseas the plutonium is put at risk from any terrorists that could attempt to steal it. Despite the risk, authorities from all three countries are sure the material will arrive safely. The route, times and security measures for the trip will not be publicized in case terrorists want to get their grubby paws around some plutonium.

Greenpeace activists paddled canoes into the French base to protest the shipment and managed to set up a "Stop Plutonium" banner before they were arrested.

The United States and Russia have made an agreement that extra nuclear warheads will provide each country with 34 tons of plutonium to be made into nuclear power stations. The warheads will be changed into fuel rods and assembled while in France and then returned in early 2005 for a reactor test. It is crazy to think there are extra nuclear warheads lying around in America and Russia. This is a country which has more military force and weapons than the rest of the world, and more military spending. Their overspending on weapons and defense systems has caused this extra weaponry to lie about, which is upsetting when compared to all the other areas to which that money could have gone, such as homelessness or the federal deficit, instead of more bomb-grade materials.

The shipment and ideas for nuclear plants have been opposed by worldwide Greenpeace activists, Charleston Peace, a local Charleston group, and Citizens Against Plutonium (CAP) of South Carolina. Perhaps it is better to work with other countries then to be upset about something so trivial. It was France's conscientious decision to oppose the war, just as it was America's decision to start and continue to fight it.