Posted by Benjamin on: 08.09.2007 /
The second (and final ever, so far) atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped by the United States on Nagasaki, Japan on today’s date in 1945. It was detonated at 1800 feet over the city, instantly killing somewhere between 40,000 and 80,000 people, and leading to many thousands of further deaths in the aftermath.
According to wikipedia, there are currently around 20,000 active nuclear weapons in the world, down from a high of 65,000 in 1985. By far the vast majority of these are owned by the United States and Russia.
and a quote from wikipedia: “most international experts conclude that South Africa has completed its nuclear disarmament. South Africa is the first and to date only country to build nuclear weapons and then entirely dismantle its nuclear weapons program.”
What’s up with the South Africans? What did they do right?
Is there a group of people in the United States and Russia who became enormously wealthy from the production of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and now they or their heirs are living off the benefits of that welath?
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Comment by: joe
1 08/9/07 3:21 PM | Comment Link |Presumably there was public pressure in South Africa that they could not say that they had no money for AIDS drugs whilst supporting a multi-billion dollar nuclear weapons arsenal*. Or maybe they just woke up and smelled the coffee - nuclear just isn’t any deterrent and isn’t any good for defence anyway. A very expensive and useless object.
No idea about profiteering from nuclear weapons.
*mind you, S Africa still isn’t that great at embracing it’s responsibilities with regard to AIDS, afaik.
Comment by: Staci
2 08/9/07 5:48 PM | Comment Link |I don’t think it is because South Africa is necessarily a more peaceful nation than the US or Russia. South Africa started their nuclear weapons programs reasons similar to those expressed by other nations: fear of the USSR, unrest in the region, their increased isolation from the rest of the world (due to apartheid.)
When they announced that they were dismantling the cold war had recently ended, there had been some resolution to regional issues, and they were ending apartheid. They said they felt they didn’t need the weapons because they were friends w/enough nations that would help protect them. It went a long way in legitimizing the nation, gaining world acceptance… basically overcoming their pariah status.
I have seen some less charitable thoughts that they did it because they didn’t want the new democratic government (including black citizens) with access to nuclear weapons.
So, I guess we can only hope that our government wants to overcome its pariah status…
Comment by: Martin Gugino
3 08/9/07 8:42 PM | Comment Link |I would like to understand:
1)why does any country need more than 10 nuclear weapons; and,
2)when it is ok to kill or coerce.
I know that these are pathetic questions.
Comment by: benjamin ady
4 08/10/07 7:04 PM | Comment Link |Staci,
that’s rather a huge hope, isn’t it?
Martin.
“Pathetic”, as in “full of suffering. I’m thinking the word is related to “passion”, which I’m thinking comes from a word that is talking about that wooden hammer looking thing in the kitchen which one uses to pound meat to soften it in preparation for cooking. what do we call that thing in english? Now I must look up some etymologies and get back to you.
Is 10 arbitrary? why 10?