In the Iranian imagination, a nuclear weapon is essential if the country is to assume its rightful place among the world’s leading nations.

– After the Crackdown by Jon Lee Anderson in New Yorker, August 16 & 23, 2010 p.64

One of the hot topics of debate in U.S. military circles is when President Obama will issue the orders to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities. At least, we think so.

The strike would have already happened by now if Obama was not vainly trying out to put out bigger fires like tackling the economic collapse, escalating violence in Afghanistan and the withdrawal from Iraq.

How Stupid can Some People be?
This thought has been nagging us since the day in May 1998 when a White woman (an acquaintance) asked us what in the world was wrong with India and Pakistan after the two countries conducted nuclear tests in quick succession.

Ha ha ha, nothing wrong bitch. Just that they too wanted what you got.

How Ridiculous
You see, there’s an entrenched notion of exclusive entitlement among some countries and the people of these nations that only they are entitled to own nuclear weapons.

No, no, the nuclear have-nots must not aspire to these weapons of mass destruction.

Not under any circumstances and to make sure they fall in line, the nuclear-haves dangle the Damocles sword of sanctions over the have-nots.

These lesser nations must sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and be content with the high-priced F-16, Mirage and MIG bomber aircraft that the nuclear-haves peddle.

To insist that others can’t have what you boldly flaunt is a ridiculous idea making a mockery of human nature. Everyone wants the (nuclear) toy the other fella has.

In the case of nuclear weapons, all nations think, perhaps rightly, that it’d be the ultimate deterrent from having to endure bullying from the nuclear nations.

Look at the contrasting fates of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il. The former mounted the gallows while the latter, if media reports are to be believed, survived a stroke and is now orchestrating the succession of his son to the top post in North Korea.

Surely, even you schmucks know that Iraq had no nuclear weapons while North Korea has multiple nuclear warheads.

Most certainly, such lessons are not lost on leaders of Iran and other countries too.

As the course of India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel and Israel has unmistakably demonstrated, to attempt to thwart the ambitions of determined nations to acquire nuclear weapons is to bark at the moon as long as other nations have it.

Today the world has some 22,000 nuclear warheads of which some 7,500 are said to be in operational state (Source: Sipri Yearbook 2010).

An accident or theft by criminal elements in Russia, Pakistan or elsewhere can have devastating consequences for the human race. Alas, the march of folly continues.

Unless the major nuclear powers of the world start talking seriously on nuclear disarmament it won’t be long before the rogue in the cave Osama bin Laden gets hold of one. And then God save us all.

As long as some nations have nuclear weapons, it’d be stupid to expect that others will not aspire for the same, and eventually acquire them, taking us all another step closer to the annihilation of human civilization.