The Nuke Age: Version 2.5

(Image by Ramirez)

 

Richard Fernandez discusses our current nuke proliferation woes with his Nuclear Age Version 2.5 article.

 

The friend who e-mailed this to us, had some good insights to add:

 

One issue that seems common is that pundits and analysts look at potential nuclear crises from a pre-crisis mindset. That is, they look at options and consequences with a strong bias towards what is normal and accepted today, rather than how the world might react AFTER a catastrophic event. If a 9/11 attack can lead to a decade plus of wars, imagine what a nuclear attack on NYC or DC or any other city around the world might do. For example, a nuke in the US might drive the USG to demand nuclear disarmament by unstable countries, on pain of annihilation.

However, if I were one of these third-rate nuke powers, now is the time to double down on procuring weapons while the US is busy spending itself into oblivion and the President is feckless and weak, while Europe is in much the same shape, and powers like Russia and China are more interested in undermining the US than in their own longer-term interests.

Despite many of our misgivings about our current re-elected administration, let's hope we can weather this "new and improved" version of the Nuke Age, like our Cold Warriors managed to.

In the meantime, it looks like Iran will have some "irradiated teething problems" to deal with.