Vice-President Biden gave a speech this week where he “said the United States will continue to pursue President Obama’s call for elimination of all U.S. nuclear arms” (see link below). He also called for the U.S. Senate to ratify a nuclear test-ban treaty that was turned down years ago in a previous Senate vote. The link also includes discussion of at least some funding in the current budget to maintain the USA’s aging inventory of nuclear weapons.
Biden’s speech seems to ignore all geopolitical reality. China is building a larger nuclear inventory, Pakistan and India are growing nuclear powers, and other nations are still nuclear powers (France, the UK and the Israelis). North Korea has a primitive nuclear weapon, and Iran is expected to have nuclear weapons soon. If Russia agreed to ban nuclear weapons, do you think for a moment that they would abide by such a treaty when other nations in the world retained nuclear weapons? It would be the height of folly for the USA to ban nuclear weaponry if any other nations retained their nuclear bombs. Recent blogs at this website have commented on reports that South Korea has had a secret nuclear program for years, that Japan could quickly go nuclear and that Saudi Arabia already has nuclear weapons in its account that are being stored by Pakistan (which built the nukes with Saudi aid).
If Iran obtains nuclear weapons, all nuclear non-proliferation efforts are dead. Many nations will want nuclear weapons to counter Iranian nukes and all nations will know that international efforts cannot even stop rogue nations like Iran from obtaining nukes. If Obama is serious about nuclear non-proliferation efforts, he has no choice but to attack Iran’s nuclear sites to stop Iran from obtaining nukes. If Iran obtains them, the floodgates will likely open as many nations will not only want nuclear weapons, they will need them for their own protection.
I see only one way that this earth could become a nuclear-free zone. If a future regional war included the use of nuclear weapons on large cities and the world was reminded of the horrors caused by the use of nuclear weapons, then it might be a possibility. Even then, it would be unlikely. Its too bad someone can’t help VP Biden to see the world as it is instead of how he wants it to be.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/19/biden-seeks-test-ban-and-end-to-all-us-nukes/
