I read an article on The Nation website called Nuclear Neanderthals vs. Obama's Common Sense. This article was about how the President feels about nuclear weapons, what he wants to do about them and what others feel about them and want to do about them. It starts out saying that since George Bush is back in Texas, (deeper meaning: He's out of the White House), and Obama is in the White House then there is finally hope on getting rid of nuclear weapons. Obama doesn't see the need to build anymore. That is another story for the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who of course was under Bush in his administration, and he completely supported Bush's ideas on building more weapons. According to the article, "Gates is a relentless supporter of building the next generation of nuclear weapons--the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program." So Gates doesn't really want to support any policy Obama gives on not building any new weapons.
It says that we have over 5,000 weapons and they will last at a minimum of another 80-100 years. There is a want to reduce this number to at least a 1000 and even if we do that we will still have plenty enough to blow up the world! The article also points out how the US wants other Countries to "restrain their nuclear ambition," so if we want that then we need to restrain our own. So if we go through with his plan to build more weapons the other Countries will think we're trying to one up them, to have more and be better and more powerful.
There are many organizations against nuclear weapons and they have been speaking out about them recently also. There was an article in Parade magazine about how nuclear weapons need to be demolished completely.
Obama is making a new policy to reduce our nuclear weapons to 1000, though the policy has some holes in it. The article states, "Let's hope those flaws aren't around a renewed arms control effort, and that President Obama is making it clear to Secretary Gates that he has a new boss and a new policy he needs to support."
I really and truly hope that Obama isn't going to fall in with Gates and make more weapons because I'm totally against nuclear weapons! I really don't like war at all but if there has to be a war I'd rather it be without nuclear weapons because they cause so much damage to the Earth and the people and living things in it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a classic example of the security dilemma that each nation in this world faces. For example, if a specific country builds up their supplies of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in an attempt to increase their security other countries, in response, will increase their arsenal as well. By trying to increase their security, a country has actually decreased it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, simply reducing the number of nuclear weapons may not be the answer to increasing security. It is unclear whether downsizing their arsenal would have the same effect on other countries. If the United States decreased the number of nuclear weapons it has and other countries do not follow suit, then the United States has again decreased its own security.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteGood summary of the article, good response.
I could not get your link to work--it took me to the Blackboard log in screen.