Warfare and MAD Poker

Talking with my friend Raj, we got onto the subject of nuclear weapons and the problems with North Korea and Iran. He gave me a uniquely Indian opinion, he liked them! Before India and Pakistan had atomic weapons there was often bitter warfare between the two countries. But now there is none, because neither party wants the bickering to escalate to the point where either has to use their nuke’s. Sure there are disputes, just no serious warfare.

This is one of those ‘remember your history’ issues, this is MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) on a small scale. You want to control the North Korean nuclear threat, arm the South Koreans with nuclear missiles also.

In the case of Iran, they have stated as much, they are uncomfortable with Israel having Nuke’s, so they are trying to ‘protect’ themselves. This isn’t new, the Israelis have had nuke’s for years, and the U.S. has made no fuss about it. But what floors me is the fact that when the Shah was still in power in Iran, He was attempting to build Nuke’s, as far back as 1974 and the U.S. didn’t mention a word. The Iranians have had the technology and the materials to build one for years. (Building Nuke’s is easy if you have a bit of Plutonium or some pure Uranium)

Why the big stink now. The only thing I can think of is to continue to make the citizens of the U.S. (maybe the world) feel insecure. Neither of the two countries has the missile technology to strike anyone other than their neighbors. The threat of a suitcase nuke has not gotten any worse, the threat has always been more because the U.S. and the Former Soviet Union together have lost more nuclear materials than either Iran or North Korea could produce in a century.

I’m reminded of the Sting song ‘Russians’ I hope the Russians love their children too!. I hope he writes another song I hope the Muslim’s (and Americans and Koreans) love their children too!. It would be downright un-neighborly, to do otherwise.