George W. Bush went around the world looking for the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). He invaded Iraq on that pretext. Then he called Iraq, Iran, and North Korea an "Axis of Evil." But what about himself and his country? I suppose there the Divine Right of Kings prevails. Tell me more about evolution. We are still at the early stages of evolution – might is right and the fittest shall survive.
The other day I was watching the news on PBS. The anchorman was discussing Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal. Then he gave a list of all the countries that have nuclear warheads and how many. I was alarmed. Here is the list not from PBS but one I found through googling:
China: 100-200 warheads.
France: Approximately 350 strategic warheads.
Russia: 4,237 strategic warheads, approximately 2,000-3,000 operational tactical warheads, and approximately 8,000-10,000 stockpiled strategic and tactical warheads.
United Kingdom: Less than 160 deployed strategic warheads.
United States: 5,914 strategic warheads, approximately 1,000 operational tactical weapons, and approximately 3,000 reserve strategic and tactical warheads.
India: Up to 100 nuclear warheads.
Israel: Between 75 to 200 nuclear warheads.
Pakistan: Up to 60 warheads.
Enough to blow up the whole globe many times over. Rather than WMDs, we should call them Weapons of Self-Destruction. If there ever is a nuclear confrontation, bye bye planet Earth and whatever is alive on it.
I will buy the argument that Iran and North Korea should not have nuclear weapons given the instability of these countries. However, I believe that India, Israel, and Pakistan can be pretty unstable at times too. They must be disarmed of nuclear warheads. How can we do that? By setting examples. The major players, like the US and Russia, must start reducing their stockpiles with the objective of making the globe free of WMDs. Once the US and Russia start such a process, they will then have moral authority to ask other countries to do the same.
It may look like a mission impossible, but if world leaders put their minds to it, it may be achievable someday. After all, we pretty much rid the world of the smallpox pandemic. Once we realize that nuclear arsenals can cause the worse pandemic the world has ever seen or known(or we may never see or know as there may be no one to do that), we may start doing something about it.
