The Nuclear Conundrum

List of States with Nuclear Weapons

There are currently eight states that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons. Five are considered to be "nuclear weapons states," an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons these are: the United States of America, Russia (formerly the Soviet Union), the United Kingdom, France and the People's Republic of China. Since the formulation of the NPT, three non-signatory states of the NPT have conducted nuclear tests: India, Pakistan, and purportedly North Korea. Additionally, Israel is also strongly suspected to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons though it has refused to confirm or deny this, and there have been reports that over 200 nuclear weapons might be in its inventory. This status is not formally recognized by international bodies as none of these four countries are currently signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has been developing uranium enrichment technology and stands accused by the United Nations of doing so for weapons purposes.

History of Nuclear Weapons

The United States was the first country to develop nuclear weapons with the Manhattan Project, from 1942 to 1946, where they won the race for the weapon with Germany and Japan. The United States was the first and remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons, in WWII, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 6, 1945, and August 9, 1945. The bombs together killed roughly 214,000 people, the majority civilians. Dropping the bombs arguably ended WWII early, preventing the planned invasion of Japan and saving many American and Japanese lives.

MAD

In the Cold War that followed WWII, Russia first developed nuclear weapons in 1949. Eventually, Russia and the United States had so many nuclear weapons that they could destroy each other in any all-out nuclear confrontation. This led to a kind of uneasy peace guaranteed by MAD (mutually assured destruction), the fear that the use of nuclear weapons by any country will also lead to its own destruction, by the sure retaliation of the attacked state.

click to show/hide the rest of the post

Since this time, the rest of the nuclear club has developed its nuclear weapons while avoiding using them again because of MAD. MAD has worked so far because all the countries with nuclear weapons, however illogical they may seem at times, appear to fear being destroyed. Another thing that has kept nuclear weapons from being used is that people all over the globe have come to the conclusion that Hirhoshima and Nagasaki were so horrible that nuclear bombs should never be used again. Plus, the civilized world now believes that targeting innocent civilians in war is no longer acceptable.

The Breakdown of MAD

Despite several attempts at curbing the development and spread of nuclear weapons, there are still enough of them in the world now to destroy the earth several times over. Plus, as was mentioned in the opening paragraph of this post, these kinds of weapons are now in the hands of eight or nine states.

MAD is still working, evidently, but the big fear is that one day soon it will no longer apply. When North Korea and Iran develop their full arsenals of nuclear weapons, these WMD's will be in the hands of rogue states, who have disregarded world opinion and appear unpredictable and even dangerous in their aggressive postures toward their neighbors. Iran, for example, has vowed to destroy Israel, another nuclear state.

Plus, terrorists like Al-Queda have been trying to obtain nuclear weapons for some time now. Unscrupulous characters in Russia, Korea or Iran could sell or give nuclear weapons to the terrorists. The terrorists, as evidenced by the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. World Trade Center Towers, seem unconcerned with killing innocent civilians, and unafraid even of their own destruction. They effectively lost a whole country, Afghanistan, but continue to proliferate underground. MAD does not seem to work with them.

It would take one nuclear bomb to destroy Israel. It would take about eight to effectively cripple the United States. It would take one in the U.S. to effect a catastrophe bigger than Katrina.

Iran and North Korea

Present world tactics to stop Iran and North Korea from developing and stockpiling nuclear weapons are useless. Both countries have every reason to enter the nuclear club, and the world is not united enough to punish them to the point where they will give up their ambitions. Both Iran and North Korea see what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq, and figure that this could not have happened had these countries possessed nuclear weapons. They are correct. Plus, having nuclear weapons gains a country respect and financial reward. Unfortunately, this is the truth.

Solutions

Our present solution to the nuclear problem is to try to keep the number of nuclear weapons in the world stable, or decrease it; and to stop nuclear proliferation, especially into the hands of rogue states. This tactic clearly is breaking down.

If the world bans nuclear weapons entirely, will this help? The problem is that some countries will not go along with this, or will keep nuclear weapons secretly. Then, the countries that gave up their weapons will be at a disadvantage. This will be the worst case for the world. All the good nations will be defenseless and all the bad ones will be able to destroy the good ones.

What is the solution? I am not smart enough to say. There is no country on earth that has been smart enough to say.

The United States continues to tilt at windmills in its quest to keep Iran and Korea out of the nuclear club. I wish us well in this, but I don't see that we will succeed. These two countries will have nuclear weapons.

Plus, MAD will no longer work with the terrorists.

So, we're in an impossible situation.

I suggest we continue to think. We must come up with a solution. We should not give up in trying to keep Iran and North Korea out of the nuclear club, but we also need a vision that goes beyond this. It is not enough for us to pray, since I believe that God has given us this conundrum as a test whether we deserve to survive as a species. The answer to our prayers, I believe, is that God wants us to solve this problem ourselves.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

Subscribe to my feed
                                          

Join me in the war on error, in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way! Support this site! Wanna swap links? It’ll help us both. Truth—The No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone

click to hide most of this post