James Carafano on the Nuclear Threat
May 26th, 2009
The Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano writes about the nuclear threat. As Barack Obama seeks to appease countries and reduce our ability to protect ourselves, more nations are developing nuclear weapons.
Mohamed El-Baradei, soon-to-be-former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, describes a sort of monkey-see/monkey-do scenario. As countries develop nuclear weapons, other countries will do likewise. Therefore, we should get rid of nuclear weapons. Wrong, says Carafano:
“When the Cold War ended in the 1980s, the United States stopped modernizing our nuclear arms and began to reduce our inventory. America has been on the road to zero for a generation now. And what has this ‘leading by example’ accomplished? Today more, not fewer, countries possess atomic arms.
“Yet, El-Baradei still holds up the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a model for solving the problem. It is a solution that has been tried and found woefully wanting…If the United States continues to cut its arms and let its existing inventory become outmoded and unsafe, it will only foster a new nuclear race. That’s because it will be increasingly easy for other nations to field a credible nuclear force against a rapidly deteriorating U.S. inventory. We’ll wind up back where we started – living in a ‘MAD’ (mutually assured destruction) world once again.
“Happily, history offers evidence about what does work. Over the years, countries with nascent nuclear weapons programs – Brazil, Libya, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan – have abandoned their atomic ambitions. All did so only because they believed their security would be enhanced by not having the weapons.”
Maintaining a strong missile defense system is an effective way to keep the world safer, not disarming ourselves. As Carafano points out, our president seems to disagree. He’s cutting about 15 percent from the missile defense budget, even as North Korea defies the world by conducting nuclear tests and test-firing missiles. North Korea certainly isn’t living in a fantasy world, and neither should we.
“We need a serious debate over how to make the world – and America’s place in it – safer. Policies that put disarmament before security will put us on the road to ruin.”