tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804513671389132165.post6973180959971454416..comments2023-07-25T07:08:51.934-06:00Comments on Bill Longstaff: Can we de-nuke the world, after all?Bill Longstaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15883751372039947365noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804513671389132165.post-13884901931119461972009-01-29T14:21:00.000-07:002009-01-29T14:21:00.000-07:00Bill, I try to keep tabs on the dizzying array of ...Bill, I try to keep tabs on the dizzying array of arms races underway today. I doubt that there's much Obama can do about today's nuclear proliferation. That horse has already left the barn.<BR/><BR/>Bush fueled most of this proliferation. Putting anti-missile batteries in Poland and the Czech Republic only led the Russians to develop and field a much more capable model of missile and advanced warheads.<BR/><BR/>Now the Americans are helping India establish its own missile shield too as part of its effort to contain China. That comprises anti-missile systems for India, South Korea and Japan.<BR/><BR/>Then there are the "moderate" (despotic but pro-Western) Arab states. They're quietly working on their own nuke programmes in case Iran fields a Shiite nuke threat.<BR/><BR/>I'm just guessing but I think that any serious effort at nuclear disarmament will have to wait until a nuclear exchange, somewhere.<BR/><BR/>Pakistan-India perhaps or Iran-Israel, maybe even North Korea-Japan (did you know some powerful factions there are pushing for Japan to develop a nuclear arsenal?).<BR/><BR/>Nuclear disarmament pretty much went out the window when the original nuclear powers - China, the Sovs, Britain, France and the US - chose to shelve their obligations to disarm under the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty.<BR/><BR/>Today a lot of countries are looking at getting their own nukes not because they want them but because they fear what could await them if they don't.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.com