A Safer Place
They stand on guard. They do this for us, the populations who elect them to high office. The purpose of the weaponry is to alert any who would be our enemies that our countries are well stocked with deadly armaments which will be used in response to any attacks on our soil.The purpose is not to threaten those whom we identify as having ill regard for us, but to caution them not to follow through on any plans to destabilize the peace of the world by launching any unfortunate attacks.
Those in possession of nuclear arms are held to be responsible nations of the world. Duly elected, most of them. There are exceptions. China, for example, and North Korea; the latter still searching for the formula to transform their nuclear knowledge into warheads, the former monitoring the results; neither of them elected, both administering the affairs of their nations as Communist lawmakers.
India, Israel, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States have elected governments. With the exception of Russia which takes exception to being excluded, they are all democracies. Russia's manipulation of their polls excludes them from true democratic representation; their communist past still resonates. Pakistan shares Russia's corrupt voting history.
The United States and Russia dominate the field of launchers and nuclear warheads; each with roughly 1,200 to 1,400 of the former and 2,400 of the latter, respectively. Followed by China, by the United Kingdom, by France, by Israel, by Pakistan and by India. Most of these thousands of missiles carry one warhead apiece, but some carry up to 4 each, while others uniquely carry from ten to a dozen.
There has, up to now, been one country alone that has suffered the dread consequences of two atomic bomb attacks, and that is Japan whom the United States struck before the final conclusion of the WWII war in the Pacific. This was when nuclear warheads were yet in their infancy as devices of mass destruction.
The concern that rogue countries like Iran and/or violent terror groups like al-Qaeda could come in possession of such dread weapons is a terrifying prospect. But it is one that could conceivably occur, and should it the world will be a far more fragile place than it currently is.
Nothing holds back science and technology. And nothing seems to deter human determination. A combination that has seen a great deal of successful innovation in the past. And which might, at some future time, realize a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.
Labels: Human Fallibility, Political Realities, Science, Security, Technology
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 09, 2012
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