Monday, May 24, 2010

Nuclear Actors: United States, Iran, Israel

Dear readers,

I will send a proper update of several Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) later in the week.

I'm on the Pugwash Councils email list and there have been TONS of emails and stories.

Here are a few of them:

An Arsenal We Can All Live With by GARY SCHAUB Jr. and JAMES FORSYTH Jr.

key excerpt:
"THE Pentagon has now told the public, for the first time, precisely how many nuclear weapons the United States has in its arsenal: 5,113. That is exactly 4,802 more than we need."

America Moves the Goalposts By ROGER COHEN

key excerpt:
"John Limbert, once a U.S. hostage in Tehran, now charged with Iranian affairs at the State Department, has given a good description of the caricatures that bedevil American-Iranian non-relations."

"Americans see Iranians as “devious, mendacious, fanatical, violent and incomprehensible.” Iranians, in turn, see Americans as “belligerent, sanctimonious, Godless and immoral, materialistic, calculating,” not to mention bullying and exploitive."

Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons.

key excerpt:

"Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.

They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted."

Hope you enjoy the reading and learn something!

Best,
Alena

1 comment:

  1. Regarding the first article, if the "plan" is to kill 1/4 to 1/3 of the population of Russia, how can such an arsenal NOT be "unnecessarily threatening". More nuclear weapons and delivery systems mean more options, so that wholesale genocide of a potential enemy is not the sole response available. Tactical attacks against actual military facilities are more effective (not to mention far more moral) than the aforementioned genocide. I won't even begin to mention the Pentagon's poor judgment (policy?) of declaring a number of nuclear weapons. The Russians certainly won't do that, and even if they did, they'd lie.

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