Nuke Up Everybody
If all that matters now is raw power, why shouldn't every country acquire nuclear weapons?
If all that matters now is raw power, why shouldn't every country acquire nuclear weapons?
Mark my word, President Trump and President Zelinsky will find a way to navigate themselves into some mushy middle ground, but the longer lasting implications are that smaller countries will have no choice but to seek nuclear weapons to protect themselves from larger countries since all that matters now is strength.
I want to remind Americans that countries like Pakistan and India didn't ask our permission before they acquired nuclear weapons.
We all seem to trust that deterrence alone will keep us safe.
Perhaps it will, but remember the finger on any nuclear code is a human finger.
And human fingers are flawed.
Human fingers are attached to people who have psychosis, sociopathy, psychopathy, or may just be some stupid dudes.
Of course, some are very nice people.
I must admit that I fall into the trap of occasional getting excited about going to war.
I was much more liberal back when we invaded Iraq after 9/11 and I remember getting swept up in the hysteria and adrenaline and desire for payback and then regretting it like most of us have.
Diplomacy is messy, sloppy, and often disgustingly unsatisfying.
But in the absence of trying to get along and trust each other and form agreements that can be verified and enforced, it's beginning to dawn on the rest of the world that there is no other country on Earth as powerful militarily as the United States of America.
But that logic is based on the current playing field.
Imagine if Ukraine hadn't given its nuclear weapons back to Russia in the '90s. Perhaps Putin would have thought twice before invading.
Most rational, logical, thoughtful, leaders indeed subscribe to the mutually assured destruction theory that if everyone has nukes nobody has nukes, but all it takes is one rogue or physically, mentally, or psychologically impaired leader to decide he's been backed into a corner and has no option other then launch a nuclear weapon.
If you're going to die anyway...
Sadly, we are entering a profoundly dangerous time.
I'm not saying that to be hyperbolic, dramatic, or defeatist, but it doesn't take that much imagination to envision a scenario where a nuclear weapon is launched and a country loses a half a million people, then what?
The beauty and miracle of diplomacy is that when it works, there’s no longer the need for any weapons at all.
Short of that utopia, we all know that we are a small world, an interconnected world, and a world that must get along.
History informs us that brute strength wins - to the victor goes the spoils.
I’m proud, and comforted, that our country - the country I love - is the most powerful in the world.
And, like many of you, I have little patience for the glacial, mind-numbing pace, most double-speaking diplomats engage in, but the alternative to talking is killing and we’re embarking on an age where the risk of miscalculation - or sheer stupidity - is unthinkable.