ANSWERING QUESTION OF WHY NUKES ARE ALLOWED

Submitted by JACK THACKARY (United States), Apr 5, 2009 at 08:26

Grand Infidel asks 'why the USA and its allies are allowed to develop nuclear weapons and other nations are not.' This is really a two-part question. Why do some countries want to develop nuclear weapons and why do we tolerate the development of nuclear weapons within some countries but not others.

Answer to question 1) For many countries the possession of nuclear weapons is viewed as not only being a deterrent to the aggression of other nations but it also confers upon them a degree of status in that they have now become a 'force to be reckoned with.' This is obviously the case with North Korea, which just today [April 5, 2009] launched a missile into space to deploy a satellite but which was largely viewed as an attempt to demonstrate their long-range first-strike missile capabilities to the world. Although there has been a lot of sabre-rattling and protest on the part of the United States, Japan and even Communist China over this, the fact is that any nation that acheives nuclear weapons capabilities is rewarded with an increased status in the community of nations.

Notice that Iraq was invaded and its tyrant head-of-state deposed because they were suspected of 'attempting' to create a nuclear arsenal, while North Korea, run by an even less rational tyrant and known to have already done so, was left untouched.

Answer to question 2) We tolerate nuclear power status amongst our friends for the self-evident reason that we 'trust' them and consider them to be 'on our team.' France, despite a considerable degree of socio-political contentiousness, is still rated as being one of our 'allies' and is therefore accepted as a nuclear power. Israel does not admit to having nukes but everyone knows that they do.

As for their status as an "ally" of the United States, well, we assume they are but I think Israel has only one priority and that is its own survival and should therefore be realistically classed as "non-alligned." Your assumption that Britain is a nuclear power already is incorrect, it is not, but there would certainly be no protest from the United States were it to develop such weapons.

Pakistan and India gained considerable status upon becoming "nuclear nations" and we now feel the necessity of appeasing them because of it, regardless of who they may or may not be alligned with. Russia is not a "friend" but they've got far too large an arsenal of nukes for us to allow them to become an "enemy."

And in the bizarre shifting playing field of international relations, Communist China has now become such a strong economic ally of the United States that we have no choice but to tolerate virtually anything they choose to do. Through its own rapidly expanding capitalist economy, what is still formally known as "Communist" China is emerging as the world's greatest economic power. They already have nuclear weapons and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. At this juncture all we want is for them to continue buying Treasury Bills to prop up our own failed economic system.

And as for the question 'why is the United States allowed to have nuclear weapons,' the answer is simply that we Americans developed them first and we still have the world's largest nuclear arsenal and nobody can take them away from us. It's as simple as that.

And that's our crazy nuclear weapon policy in a nutshell.

- J. T.

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