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Running head: The Sacrifice of Abraham 1

Fail-safe is an interesting story that revolves between the United States of America, and the Soviet Union that is characterized by war and the hard decisions that needed to be made. The story begins with sending information to the America's air force command center of an approaching unknown aircraft from Europe. This raises the alarms and prompts launching bombers to the fail-safe points awaiting unique code for attack. Unfortunately, the attack code was accidently transmitted, which can be attributed to a technical failure. This could only mean the instigation of nuclear war in which the president is pushed to make unpopular decisions to prevent a war emerging. This is, however, not readily welcomed as we shall determine. (Burdick & Wheeler,1999).

The title alludes to the famous Bible story of Abraham that carries the message of hope that during hard moments there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Mostly at the end of any difficult and trying moment coupled with endurance and lot of faith, there is always recompense and a high reward. The ability to trust God even when all seems not to be making any sense and noticeable progress is imperative. The shown obedient and trust can be attributed to God’s infallibility and complete assurance. Abraham had married Sarah, who was barren. For want of a son, they consistently and earnestly prayed to God for many years. At an old age, God promised Abraham a son and through that son, Abraham would be blessed to become the father of many nations and that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the sea or stars in heaven. God was faithful to them and granted them a son despite Sarah's old age (beyond childbearing age). They were blessed with a son, Isaac, and eventually the Lord decided to try Abraham and ascertain his level of commitment and loyalty by asking him to sacrifice the son. Abraham had to make the choice of either obeying God, who had given him a son, or retaining his now gotten son. However, despite loving the son too much, Abraham had to make the decision of preceding him and rather obeying God. By putting God's sake above everything, he took the son to the Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. As he prayed to sacrifice the son and had prepared the place of the sacrifice, he lifted the knife to slay him. However, before he could do it, the Lord stopped him and provided an alternative. The son was spared, and Abraham had passed the loyalty and faith test by showing that he had reverence and willingness to follow God’s commands.

In the last chapter of Failsafe entitled the “Sacrifice of Abraham”, it conforms to the Bible story, and therefore it can be said to describe the president’s decision sufficiently. Although in a different context. Following the accidental release of the attack code that would eventually bring down Moscow, the president instructs the air force to run after the bombers and destroy them. However, this was not received very well. The president also calls the Soviet Union and offers them help in detonating and subsequently killing already deployed bombers. The offered help is met with distrust by the Soviet Union though they later accept the help. The corps of Soviet army manages to shoot down the three of the six planes while others remain on course to attack Moscow. Eventually, one bomber remains and its crew, having been exposed to the radiations chooses to bomb Moscow anyway out desperation. Finally, it now becomes apparent the sixth attacker will succeed any penetrates the Soviets defense to destroy Moscow utterly. Here the president who can be alluded to be the Abraham now has to make that sacrificial decision that could result in him losing the first lady, who is here alluded as the son, Isaac. The United States president makes decision and orders the American bomber to destroy New York city simultaneously with Moscow, with state building to zero. The president does this without cautioning the first lady is visiting the city. The president's action depicts personal sacrifice for the sake of international peace and prevention of worldwide nuclear war. This sacrifice can be likened with the president to obedience for a higher cause that is beyond human selfish and personal interests. (Tuck, 1974)

However, it can also be said that that the title doesn’t wholly bring out the story of Abraham very well because the two stories happen in different contexts which cannot be fully reconciled to one another. From the Bible, Abraham is about to sacrifice the son out of love for the God and not the will of man and his decision is not influenced by other people mistake. In our story of safe-fail, the United States president is coerced to make a sacrificial order following a technological failure that he didn’t instigate. Secondly, it can be said that the president would have ensured that the first lady was out of trouble if he was so much willing to save her life. From the story of Abraham, it is also evident that God provided an alternative lamb of sacrifice, but in our case, the bomber was just dropped. Also from the story of Abraham, he is in return rewarded for showing and disposing of faith and loyalty to God and for passing the trial. On the other side, the president receives no direct reward or reputation owing to the fact he was only trying to clean the mess that his only country made. (Hook,1963).

Despite above counter-arguments, it is imperative to note that the president displayed good will in the face of the crisis and was willing to incur the cost however painful it was. Therefore, this qualifies him to stand in the same league with Abraham of the Bible.

References

Burdick, E., & Wheeler, H. (1999). Fail safe (1st ed.). New York, NY: Hopewell, N.J.: Ecco Press.

Tuck, D. (1974). The encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy (1st ed.). Chicago: Advent: Publishers.

Hook, S. (1963). The Fail-safe fallacy (1st ed.). New York: Stein and Day.

Seed, D. (1994). Military Machines and Nuclear Accident: Burdick and Wheeler's Fail-Safe. War, Literature, and the Arts, 6, 21.