[The
Polish Home Foundation, Poland]
Die Presse, Austria
A World Without Nuclear Weapons? It's Worth a Try
"Thanks
to an enormous effort to suppress reality, we have settled quite blithely on
top of a volcano … It is utterly foolish to store some 27,000 nuclear bombs
worldwide, considering that even a tenth of these would well and truly destroy
the planet. It is the U.S. and Russia that should begin scrapping first."
By Christian Ultsch
Translated By Ulf Behncke
February 6, 2009
Austria
- Die Presse - Original Article (German)
Disarmament ... is there anyone
left still interested in disarmament? START I, START II,
the ABM
- all code phrases for boredom which, like the dreariness of the Cold War,
peace marches and hand-knit cardigans, are about as exciting as peg-topped
trousers, Knight Rider
and the old tape recorder of the 1980s. The Day After -
that's yesterday. Hardly anyone today is troubled by the idea that around the
world, thousands of nuclear weapons lie dormant in bunkers, while a push of the
wrong button could devastate the planet.
Thanks to an enormous effort
to suppress reality, we have settled quite blithely on top of a volcano. So far
things have gone well; no atomic bomb has been detonated since 1945. So why get
wound up for nothing, now that the Cold War is over?
That is exactly why. Because
the Cold War is history and its well-understood rules no longer apply. The hypothesis that nuclear bombs are some kind of life insurance
policy because they create a balance of terror - cue the Cuba
Missile Crisis - has always been somewhat daring.
In the confusing world of
today, this argument no longer holds. The balance of terror depended on
the fact that there were two opposing blocs acting rationally. The knowledge
that any counter-attack would result in total annihilation prevented either
side from setting off atomic bombs. The principal was called MAD
- Mutually Assured Destruction.
In the current
era of asymmetrical conflict, however, there are enough screwballs, from Osama
bin Laden all the way down the ranks, who would be crazy enough to accept yet
another world war. The al-Qaeda terror network has demonstrably attempted to
obtain fissile material. The more nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons states
there are, the more likely it is that bin Laden's purchasing department will
succeed. This is one of the main reasons that Iran and North Korea should have
their nukes removes from their hands by force. Otherwise a fatal news arms race
will ensue.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
It would be best to completely
abolish nuclear weapons. That isn't an idea from some naïve pacifists but from
a group of prominent former American politicians who, during their time in
office, weren't known for romantic utopias, but tough pragmatism. In a joint
letter early in 2007, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and
George Shultz as well as former Defense Secretary William Perry and Senator Sam
Nunn, called for a world without nuclear weapons. Their appeal made headlines,
dozens of celebrities and even the world's most powerful man joined in: last
summer, Barack
Obama publicly declared before 100,000 people in Berlin that he too
craves a nuclear weapons-free world. And just this weekend at the Munich
Conference on Security, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier picked up his lance for the idea.
Whether the day will ever
come that we have destroyed last nuclear weapon is course doubtful. The modern
day Aladdin capable of putting the nuclear genie back has probably not been
born. In the end, the so-called “Prisoner's
Dilemma” is likely to continue to demand its tribute: of course the
world would be a much better place if everyone laid down their nuclear weapons.
It's a beautiful dream, but to achieve full disarmament, one's confidence in
others is unlikely ever to be enough.
But much can be achieved, if
only the nuclear powers would begin taking the first steps toward disarmament.
It is utterly foolish to store some 27,000 nuclear bombs worldwide, considering
that even a tenth of these would well and truly destroy the planet. With over
90 percent of all nuclear weapons in their possession, it is the U.S. and
Russia that should begin scrapping first.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
At least in that way, they
would begin to fulfill their unkept obligations they took up under the 1968 Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. This agreement, which a certain George W.
Bush put more holes in than a piece of Swiss cheese with his development of
mini-nukes and other unilateral decisions, was supposed to work like this: The
have-nots renounce The Bomb and in return, the nuclear weapons states
work toward complete disarmament. Abiding by the obligations of the Treaty
wouldn't hurt - and it would add credibility to the exercise of trying to talk
a nation like Iran out of acquiring the nuclear bomb.
CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
February 13, 6:47pm]
