A last post

on nuclear bombs / arsenals / arms race / threats.

I am older than the bomb. I grew up in a world under threat of nuclear war. The French & the United States tested their weapons in the Pacific, not that far away from New Zealand where I was born & lived for the first thirty years of my life. The English carried out their nuclear tests in Australia where I now live. The Russians, the Chinese & the Indians all carried out nuclear tests.

The Cold War faded. Some disarmament. Much development. It was no longer necessary to carry out physical testing to prove nuclear detonation capabilities, though, being boys, they went ahead & did it anyway. Pakistan & Israel & possibly South Africa developed nuclear weapons. There is some evidence gathered by the CIA that the latter two countries jointly exploded a nuclear device. Pakistan tested theirs in May, 1998. It has been suggested that some of the Indian tests earlier that month may have been joint Indo-Israeli tests. Possibly North Korea, possibly Iran, are either nuclear-armed or not that far away from being able to be.

The threats, theoretically, became localised. Israel v Iran, Pakistan v India. Then the threat of briefcase weapons, carried by terrorists. Blackmarket plutonium, design & nuclear exchange. Directions to build a nuclear device can be found on the internet claimed the tabloids.

But, at the end of the day of the 60th anniversary of Nagasaki, let me make a prediction. The next nuclear strike will be carried out either by or on behalf of the United States, under the guise of protecting the State, of preserving democracy.