Nuclear Proliferation
All the diplomatic world is atwitter now that Iraq has resumed nuclear research aimed an enriching uranium, perhaps to the point necessary to make nuclear weapons. We're told that nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue states and terrorists is a bad thing.
Hello!
Nuclear weapons are a bad thing. There are no "good hands" into which to place these weapons. The US developed them first and used them first. A lot of the rest of the world doesn't trust us to use our power (or our nukes) only for good, because we tend to define good in terms of our own self-interest rather than the general good of humanity.
Of course the rest of the world is no more trustworthy than we are. Is there some inherent reason to trust Great Britain or France or Russia or China or India or Pakistan or Israel more than the US? History would not suggest so. All nations, like all people, act in their own perceived self-interest regardless of whether their perceptions are valid or not.
Given that list of nuclear powers in the world, why should Iran not want to join the club? For that matter, why shouldn't North Korea want to join? Does the prospect of either Iran or North Korea obtaining nuclear weapons frighten me? Yes...and No.
It frightens me in the same way that nuclear weapons in general frighten me. I grew up in the Fifties with the duck and cover drills in school and the nuclear terror nightmares stemming from the Cold War. I remember one of my nightmares in which nuclear missiles are falling everywhere. I am lying on the ground in a meadow shaded by green leafy trees when a missile cuts through the trees aimed right for my chest.
And yet there is nothing I can do about it. If nations, or now terrorist groups, are so bent on destruction that they unleash the nuclear devil on the world, I hope I do not survive the resulting give and take. Life will be very hard on the survivors. But I can't prevent it. I see no reason to trust France or the US more than Iran or Al Qaeda with nuclear weapons.
The US recognized from the beginning that it was not in our best interests for anyone else to get nuclear weapons, yet despite our best efforts, proliferation occurred. Despite our best efforts since, they continue to proliferate. Is there anything we can do about it? Probably not. It is all within human nature. Sooner or later somebody will use them again. Whether it stops with one or two or goes on the nuclear suicide is not up to me. It's up to the people who have the power.
Hello!
Nuclear weapons are a bad thing. There are no "good hands" into which to place these weapons. The US developed them first and used them first. A lot of the rest of the world doesn't trust us to use our power (or our nukes) only for good, because we tend to define good in terms of our own self-interest rather than the general good of humanity.
Of course the rest of the world is no more trustworthy than we are. Is there some inherent reason to trust Great Britain or France or Russia or China or India or Pakistan or Israel more than the US? History would not suggest so. All nations, like all people, act in their own perceived self-interest regardless of whether their perceptions are valid or not.
Given that list of nuclear powers in the world, why should Iran not want to join the club? For that matter, why shouldn't North Korea want to join? Does the prospect of either Iran or North Korea obtaining nuclear weapons frighten me? Yes...and No.
It frightens me in the same way that nuclear weapons in general frighten me. I grew up in the Fifties with the duck and cover drills in school and the nuclear terror nightmares stemming from the Cold War. I remember one of my nightmares in which nuclear missiles are falling everywhere. I am lying on the ground in a meadow shaded by green leafy trees when a missile cuts through the trees aimed right for my chest.
And yet there is nothing I can do about it. If nations, or now terrorist groups, are so bent on destruction that they unleash the nuclear devil on the world, I hope I do not survive the resulting give and take. Life will be very hard on the survivors. But I can't prevent it. I see no reason to trust France or the US more than Iran or Al Qaeda with nuclear weapons.
The US recognized from the beginning that it was not in our best interests for anyone else to get nuclear weapons, yet despite our best efforts, proliferation occurred. Despite our best efforts since, they continue to proliferate. Is there anything we can do about it? Probably not. It is all within human nature. Sooner or later somebody will use them again. Whether it stops with one or two or goes on the nuclear suicide is not up to me. It's up to the people who have the power.
posted by Tom | 8:48 AM
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