Nuclear Arms Race

While as Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell stated, "Today I can declare my hope, declare it from the bottom of my heart, that we will eventually see the time when the number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world's is a much better place." (Nuclear N. Pg.) Ever since the Cold War era, there has been a strive between two countries vying for something that they want to obtain. One that most Americans are most familiar with is the Space Race. With the launching of the USSR's satellite Sputnik, the American people called upon our government to get us moving before the Russians beat us into space. Even though the USSR did beat us into space, we in turn beat them to the moon and in the Sea of Tranquility; an American flag stands without waving.

Another race that was kept in the dark of public knowledge was the Nuclear Arms Race. One part of the Nuclear Arms Race that was kept in the most secretive of aspects to the American public was that of, "The Manhattan Project, which was the secret gathering of scientists in forming secret cities in which secret research was done and their scientists traveled under assumed names and all this while this was being not only kept secret from the American public, but also from Congress." (Rampton Pg. 206). The race had also caused two major peaks once during the 1960s when the USSR introduced nuclear weapons into a small country 80 miles from our border name Cuba and then once again the late 1980s when the Soviet Union was in dire straights and was breaking on the foundation that it once stood so highly upon. In The Nation, the article describes and illustrates on how a call for the disarmament of nuclear weapons would not only be beneficial to our country, but to other countries and the world, while mocking the Moscow Treaty recently signed by, the United States and Russia. The article calls for the voices and people of America to use their rights and sign the "End to nuclear danger, an urgent call."

Let's start by explaining the Moscow Treaty, which calls for reducing the US and Russian nuclear arsenals by roughly two-thirds. Though, this sounds like a major reduction and the beginning of a new end, you must read between the lines. This is not a call to destroy all nuclear warheads but to reduce their numbers down to 2,200 each. Still allowing each country the possession of nuclear warheads and giving them the ability to use them when and if ever required. Another point to be outlined is the fact that the treaty does not call for the destruction of these deactivated warheads but for them to be stored rather then destroyed. Though, this may seem better deactivated and stored away, then to be activated and left out for easy use there are point we are all missing. Due to shortcomings of national security, makes it possible for the warheads to fall in the hands of terrorists easier then if they remained attached to missiles. The cold hard truth behind it, is that activated warheads are better guarded, then those which are stored away. So, does this treaty really solve any of the concerns of people around the world, on the possibility of nuclear war?

In the article "Life on the Nuclear Edge," talks about how in today's society the threat of nuclear war, is just as real as in the Cold War. The fear of nuclear war will never really disappear as long as the United States refuses to commit along with other nuclear powers to the destruction of all nuclear weapons. The article recall the destruction that the United States actually did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki yet, only what South Asians so far have threaten to do to each other. When Arundahti Roy was asked why she doesn't leave New Delhi, does she not think the threat of nuclear war is really, she makes an outstanding point. She states that life is only normal because the world around her is normal. As it would be a shame for her to dies now where would she go if she didn't have the same home and familiar surroundings. The thoughts of the people who died during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are what truly haunts her. The thought that she could be a stain on a stairwell or that hair and skin could be burned right off of her. These fears are as true to her as they were to any person back then. Today, to Arundahti Roy the threat of nuclear war, regardless of the new treaty, are as real