Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, “We do not see any glory, pride or power in the nuclear weapons — quite the opposite,” he said. He added that on the basis of a religious decree by Ayatollah Khamenei, “the production, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is illegitimate, futile, harmful, dangerous and prohibited as a great sin.”
Thinking that Mr. Salehi's words should be taken seriously is quite likely a mistake. Iran is widely reported to be one of the world's chief financiers of Islamic terrorism, seems as intent as the US to provoke another shooting war in the Middle-East, and can properly be described as just another Islamic dictatorship. But it is intriguing that he said such words at all. Imagine the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, making such a statement. It would be chaos.
Republicans, of course, would go absolutely ape-shit crazy. Included in that group would be the Christian leadership that has taken up residence in the Republican party. (Recall that I consider the Republican party to be a sect of American Christianity.) The defence industry would howl and military leaders would threaten rebellion. Ms. Clinton would be forced to resign within hours of making such a statement; even if her words were no more sincere than those of Mr.Salehi.
The Christian Democracy of the United States of America gazing up at the Islamic Dictatorship of Iran taking the moral high ground. So wedded are we to being the world's most overwhelmingly powerful military force, we can't even pretend to regard nuclear war as evil. We stand by our stockpile of 5,100 active warheads,including 1800 deployed strategic 'nukes, without a murmur of that being an immoral place to be.
Russia is reported to have 1,600 such strategic weapons; China 240, N. Korea 10. Israel, it is thought, has about 200. The mix of strategic and tactical warheads, deployment, stockpiles, and inactive warheads is hard to pin down. Russia clearly has the most available; the USA has the most currently deployed, and either one can easily out-gun the rest of the combined world.
N. Korea announced today that it is suspending its nuclear program in exchange for food and that it will allow UN inspections to verify the decision. That puts N. Korea in a club with South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, and Taiwan who have abandoned nuclear weapons programs. Libya renounced its attempts at building 'nukes before the revolution. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were left with some Soviet weapons when that empire fell, but returned them to Russia. (Cuba had Soviet weapons for a short time but their withdrawal from the world nuclear stage wasn't voluntary.)
There are a lot of countries in that group that many Americans would find lacking according to our moral view of the world.
Moral considerations aside, I would love to hear one acknowledge that eliminating nuclear weapons just might be a good financial decision. I found some interesting numbers...
In 2008 the US spent $52 Billion for "nuclear security". B-2A Bombers cost $2.6 Billion EACH. Minuteman III missiles = $48.5 Million each. MX Peacekeepers = $190 Million each. A fully armed Ohio Class "Boomer" = $3.4 to 4.1 Billion (B) each.
Heard any US political or religious leader mention that nuclear weapons are putting a pretty big dent in the budget lately? Have any of them suggested that crippling the country's budget to maintain such a force hastened the demise of the Soviet Empire? Anyone figured out how many 4 year collage degrees can be bought for a single year of nuclear security? (My guess = 1,083,333.) Mr. Obama? Mr. Perry? Newt, Rick, Joe, Harry, Mitch, Nancy, John...anyone? No?
Heard any of these folks suggest that threatening any peoples of the world with nuclear destruction is immoral?
Me either.
Mr. Ali Akbar Salehi of IRAN? Really?
Shit.
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