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Nuke roundup There is an excellent round up of the current nuclear threat in today’s Opinion Journal.
According to another government study, Pyongyang has also been at work on two very large “electrical generating” stations that, upon completion, will produce sufficient spent nuclear fuel to yield 200 kilograms of plutonium, enough to manufacture approximately 30 nuclear weapons a year.
It is a long article but well worth the time it takes to read it.
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Dang, Dale, I was just coming over here to post on that very article.
Among the points made in the article is that the non-proliferation treaty is a weak reed, having failed to halt nuclear development in rogue nations. This poses a challenge for those seeking a non-interventionist foreign policy based on international agreements and insitutions rather than the use and threat of force, it seems to me.
Much as I would like to live in a world where nations enter into treaties in good faith, and live up to their obligations even when it is not in their short term self-interest, we ain’t there yet. These proto-nuclear states pose terrible challenges and dilemmas, and I can’t help but think that the “Osirak solution” is the only way to cut the Gordian knot. Unfortunately, right now we have a number of Gordian knots to cut.
Speaking of nukes. This was just posted at debka.com:
Pakistan will deploy nuclear missiles and warheads at Saudi bases under military-nuclear accord signed in Islamabad by Crown prince Abdullah. DEBKAfile adds: Pakistani security umbrella will replace US troop presence withdrawn from kingdom this summer. Deal flatly defies Bush warning to Abdullah this year not to deploy nuclear weapons on Saudi soil.
I’ll take a big wait and see on that. I’ve been burned by Debka intelligence reports before…
UPI is also confirming the Saudi-Paki nuke report. It claims unimpeachable Paki sources.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031020-115059-8319r
I agree that Debka is unreliable. But sometimes they are the first to scoop big news.
Talk about cats and dogs living together. “Unimpeachable Paki sources?” The mind boggles.
You gotta wonder if the Pakistanis are really that stupid (I know the Saudis are). If Musharraf wants his regime changed, giving nukes the Wahhabis has got to be the quickest way to make it happen. I mean, its not like we aren’t already on his borders or anything. The Indians would be more than happy to help out, too.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that whatever the Saudis get, it won’t go boom if they ever want it to, and that the Pakistanis and the US planned it that way.
We’re getting near to the point of having to use our own nukes.
It is unthinkable to allow any Islamic nation to have nuclear weapons, or any weapon of mass destruction. These people are consumed with rage toward the non-Islamic world; Israel is only the most obvious case. They would willingly risk their own annihilation to flex “Islamic muscle” and destroy the hated “Zionists.”
North Korea might be a done deal, but there’s still room for doubt there; it’s unlikely at this point that they can deliver a nuke with anything more effective than a truck. A decapitation strike could still put an end to the threat from Pyongyang.
As for Saudi Arabia, it’s time to show them the dirty end of the Big Stick. If they even dream of acquiring a nuclear capability, we should wipe their pitiful Wahhabist satrapy right out of existence.
I no longer care that this sounds intemperate. It will sound a lot less intemperate after an A-weapon explodes in Tel Aviv — or New York.
I think it’s more likely that freakin’ Arab capital city in existence…with the exception of Amman because it’s too damn close…being wiped off the face of the earth along with Mecca and Medinah.
The last words of the Arab Man on the Street could very well be: “ABDUL WHAT’S THAT FLA — …………….”