HUBBLE WAS A HAWK

Never be fooled into thinking that you have to be a dove to be a great scientist. Edwin Hubble, best known for discovering that the universe is expanding from an initial creation moment (derisively called the "Big Bang" by rival and skeptic Fred Hoyle), was a national defense hawk during the great crisis of his time--the rise of Adolf Hitler. From a biography I've been using for research on photos of Hubble, his take on the Versailles Treaty:

As Hubble saw it, the fault was all Germany's. No matter how flawed the Treaty of Versailles may have been, eash signatory was duty bound to abide by its terms, especially the vanquished. Whenever anyone voiced skepticism he reminded them that the Allies could have dismembered Germany but they left her to her word: "If a nation gives its word the nation has to stand by it or there is no confidence or hope of international integrity."

The quote is from 1940, when the British stood alone against Hitler. As early as 1939 Hubble advocated the US declaring war on Japan, and when he heard news of Pearl Harbor, Hubble reacted that had the world simply enforced Versailles, the larger war now looming would have been avoided.

Hubble's logic applies perfectly to the present crises in both Iraq and North Korea. If he were alive today, Edwin Hubble would be a hawk. And by the way, during the war Hubble served as a civilian scientist at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where he worked long hours to improve the ballistics of US Army shells and bazookas. He even risked his life repeatedly firing a particularly unsafe model of the bazooka, studying the rocket's flight path to try and correct some problems it had had in the field. He corrected it, making it one of the most accurate weapons in America's arsenal.