To the editor:

Wake up, America, and realize we are playing Texas hold ’em for the ultimate stakes in this presidential election. Our very lives depend on realizing the importance of securing the stockpiles of U-235 and plutonium in Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.

The core of a fusion weapon is no larger than a baseball. We had nuclear backpack weapons in the late 1950s. Suitcase weapons were available in Russia.

Just imagine a small 12- to 15-kiloton weapon being detonated in a shipping container in the port of New York, Houston, Los Angeles or in the trunk of a car parked on Capitol Hill.

Understand that building the device is relative easy. Getting the highly enriched U-235 or plutonium is the hardest part.

However, there are literally tons of it guarded by one man with a rifle in Russia and left unguarded except with a padlock at night.

Thirteen years to do this is unacceptable, but that is how long it would take under Bush administration policies. Four years, as John Kerry has pledged, also is unacceptable but is an enormous improvement. Rounding up this material and keeping it out of the hands of those who would do us harm should be our No. 1 priority.

Please remember that the Islamic fundamentalists are but one bullet removed from gaining control of Pakistan’s very substantial nuclear arsenal complete with delivery systems.

E.G. Hickam,

Lawrence