Who Gets to Build New Nuclear Bombs, to Do Underground Testing?

Count this pro-nuclear disarmament citizen confused. Why did India get to do underground nuclear testing in 1998 without a huge outcry? As I read their statement about India’s evolution of nuclear weapons, I was reminded of Speaker Hastert’s blaming the Democrats and media for the Mark Foley scandal.

At the global level, there is no evidence yet on the part of the nuclear weapon states to take decisive and irreversible steps in moving towards a nuclear-weapon-free-world. Instead, the Non Proliferation Treaty has been extended indefinitely and unconditionally, perpetuating the existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the five countries who are also permanent members of the UN Security Council. Some of these countries have doctrines that permit the first use of nuclear weapons; these countries are also engaged in programmes for modernisation of their nuclear arsenals.

Under such circumstances, India was left with little choice. It had to take necessary steps to ensure that the country's nuclear option, developed and safeguarded over decades not be permitted to erode by a voluntary self-imposed restraint. Indeed, such an erosion would have had an irremediably adverse impact on our security. The Government was thus faced with a difficult decision....

India is a nuclear weapon state. This is a reality that cannot be denied. It is not a conferment that we seek; nor is it a status for others to grant. It is an endowment to the nation by our scientists and engineers. It is India's due, the right of one-sixth of humankind.

So what’s happened since 1998 with the NPT? President Bush unilaterally withdrew from our anti-ballistic missile treaties with Russia in order to legally develop space weapons. Did the world threaten sanctions?

Of course pathological leaders don’t need access to nuclear weapons, but what happens when a country elects a “uniter not a divider” who turns out to be a God inspired steamroller? President Bush develops space weapons against the world’s desires…

At a time when concrete reductions in weapons of mass destruction are needed, our world leaders conduct an arms race, threatening each other with consequences, requiring more investment in "defensive" weapons.

US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, speaking at the US-Korea Institute of Johns Hopkins University:

“We are not going to live with a Nuclear Korea, we are not going to accept it. It can have a future or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both.”

A pox on all their houses!