Are we entering a new age of nuclear proliferation?
United Nations members like Brazil, China, and Moscow have been reluctant to pursue sanctions on Iran for their continued efforts to create a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile Korea has become a full fledged nuclear power as of April 2009. These unsettling facts are only part of the global nuclear picture. Nations like Russia, China, England, France, India, Isreal, and Pakistan are already among the worlds nuclear powers along with the United States who created the technology during world war two.
After the fall of the former Soviet Union many of its nuclear weapons are believed to be missing. In the 1990’s Alexander Lebel, a former Russian National Security Advisor, stated publicly that as many as 100+ briefcase size nuclear devices developed by the KGB were missing and unaccounted for.
Although the Russian government has denied these claims, and calls them legends, it is very clear that military technology, vehicles, and weapons of all kinds have been sold from the former soviet block. Examples of this include submarines, tanks, migs, and millions of Russian made AK47’s, and SKS rifles purchased my civilians, foreign governments, terrorist groups, and revolutionaries around the globe. The thought that a nuclear device could not have been sold to a smaller state, or criminal is not far fetched or even unlikely.
In the decades of our parents we have lived under the constant threat of Nuclear attack. We have been moments from global nuclear war on many occasions since the creation of these arsenals of global destruction.
What we have to remember is that we had a choice then, and we have choices now. Let us not forget this great responsibility we hold as a nation as we create the history of our own lifetimes.
When the United States was firebombing Japanese cities and burning tens of thousands of civilians at a time near the end of the second world war we had a choice. Even though far more destruction was caused by our firebombing campaings, we made the choice to use an Atomic weapons on two occasions and created the nuclear age in the process.
We civilized people of the world had another big decision at the dawn of the cold war. When the United States and Russia had both aquired nuclear weapons both sides created the next, and possibly more devastating technology of Intercontinental Ballistic Weapons. These new weapons promised to deliver nuclear payloads to cities across the globe, and could be launched by submarine from the ice caps to hit targets anywhere in the world. Once again a new far more dangerous world had been created, and it was the choice we made out of fear, rivaly, and patriotism.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s smaller devices only 60 or 70 lbs were created by both sides, creating a new more portable suitcase nuclear threat that could be carried on an international flight, or simply driven in the trunk of any car to its destination.
We again stand on the precipice of a new age in nuclear war that threatens to destroy nations, and murder millions. Todays threat is much less a new form of technology, but it is a choice none the less. We who have created this great threat, this inconceivable monster of modern science, have a responsibility to the future of humanity. We have a responsibility to the future of free nations, civilized people, our children, and generations to come to stand up and bare the burden of the monster we have created.
We can not allow nations like North Korea and Iran who are ruled by dictators, who hate the United States, and who can not be trusted, to become the nuclear powers of tomorrow. We stand on the edge of oblivion if we trust these kinds of weapons to be managed by the insanity of militant muslim states, or the communist dictatorship of North Korea.
I fear many of the people we have elected as leaders in ths country do not have the stomach to do what is required to protect future generations. This is almost understandable as they will not have to answer to our grand children for their spinelessness, but it is not excusable or forgivable.
We have all seen how well sanctions worked on Korea, who ignored them to procure nuclear weapons and launch platforms to deliver nuclear weapons to US soil. We have been down this road before and the United Nations has proven itself not only to be corrupt but ineffective in its mission.
We stand at the gateway to a new nuclear age, and the gloom of the cold war could become a distant memory as the fires of civilized cities burn at the hands of lunatics. We can not pretend these kinds of things will not happen in our world. Imagine Stalin, Hitler, and others if they had the power of nuclear weapons at their disposal in their time. We must take all possible actions both diplomatic and militant to prevent these kinds of nations from having nuclear weapons and the option to use them.
We need a new more realistic response to these kinds of threats. If the federal government found out a citizen of this nation had chemical weapons, bomb making materials, or even a stockpile of guns they would take immediate violent action against them. Possibly even killing them and their families. Why then does that same federal government treat nations with weapons of mass destruction with kid gloves? Is this because our last president cried wolf and used the excuse of weapons of mass destruction to invade a nation we had already bombed for ten years? Does our current administration believe that shedding the blood of US soldiers in a sand pit like Afghanistan is a worthy cause while terrorist stats like Iran are allowed to create weapons that can end wars?
Economic sanctions are a joke. They are the equivalent to grounding a teenager when they misbehave. Our response should match the threat to which we are approaching. Allowing new nations to own nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction should be completely unacceptable on any level. We are soft negotiating in a situation where our enemy would be glad to see us all die.
We have been speaking softly, it is time to bring out the big stick. If we wait long enough we will not be the only ones with a big stick.
