Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Join The Club!
William Arkin, in his piece today, discusses the list of countries now attempting, or considering, acquiring nuclear weapons:
The list is vast: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan. These are the countries mentioned in op-eds and news articles following the North Korea test as having the potential to sell nuclear fuel, or those that could put together a nuclear weapon within months. The Washington Post published one such op-ed on Sunday, in which the author described a threat "more likely and more dangerous" of "a world in which countries have the capability to go nuclear on short notice."

"We are, at present, seeing an unraveling of the nonproliferation regime and the global nuclear order that we've taken for granted," former assistant secretary of defense and Harvard guru Graham Allison told the Los Angeles Times.

Add to the list of nations already in the nuclear energy business a second group of nations consider developing nuclear programs: Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Moldova, Namibia, Nigeria, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and Yemen.
Switzerland?

This may be the single greatest contribution of the Bush administration. By proving that even the trusted United States can go bonkers, we've incentivized the entire world to acquire nuclear weapons. It is only through possession of weapons of mass destruction that a country can now truly feel a sense of security against others, particularly the United States. This assessment by the world community is completely based in the reality of the last six years, witness Iraq vs. Iran, Afghanistan vs. Pakistan, and now North Korea vs. Iraq. Those nations with the bomb enjoy a much greater level of respect and security than those without.

Good job Shrub. Now multi-kiloton radioactive explosion can become as ubiqutious as the advent of gunpowder. I guess natural selection for tolerance to radioactivity is next on the ladder of evolution.
Written at 9:53 AM by Greyhair.
2 comments
2 Comments:
Blogger Deb said...
I've been reading science fiction since the sixth grade, I don't know how many books that actually is but the number is in the thousands. Major bookworm, it enabled me to ignore the bad aspects of my life. Anyway, one thread runs through a majority of stories set in the future. Even Star Trek brought it up. Nuclear warfare. Sometimes we survived, sometimes we didn't. Sometimes we were bombed back to the stone age. San Diego and San Francisco were always favorite targets. I don't even want to get into the invasions of privacy issues. Remember the tests from Blade Runner? Child's play.

The closer we get to the future, the more it looks like we will take the path most negative. I used to be angry but now I'm scared. And sad.
12:18 PM  
Blogger Greyhair said...
Well said Debra. It's like watching a train wreck and being powerless to do anything about it.

But ... can't fall into that trap. Got ... to ... keep ... fighting.
12:20 PM  
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