May 2, 2010

WHO HAS MOST NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

The World on Monday likely will learn “for the record” what nations have nuclear weapons --and how many – when they gather at New York City to reinforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that the signatories have ho-hummed lately.

U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will address the NPT Review Conference after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  He is expected to repeat his demands for more global controls over the stockpiles of nuclear nations – read that: United States of America and Israel.

It is obvious that Ahmadinejad is trying to divert attention from the Iranian program of nuclear ammunition production and recent missile delivery launches.

The United States has steadfastly refused to reveal the number of its missile nukes.  However, it does not comment on estimates of 9,000 weapons – with approximately half that number capable of instant retaliation, and the remainder scheduled for dismantlement.

SHRINKING ARSENAL

As the Washington Post points out,

“Arms-control activists and officials in the Energy and State Departments have argued that making the numbers public would prove how much progress the U.S. government has made in shrinking its Cold War arsenal.

“That’s important because, under the NPT, nuclear-weapons countries promise to move toward disarmament --  while non-nuclear nations pledge they won’t build a bomb.  A total of 189 countries are treaty members.

The last NPT Review Conference in 2005 collapsed in failure.  Many countries accused the George W. Bush administration of shirking its disarmament obligations.”

TRANSPARENCY ?

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation, said releasing the U.S. numbers at this time “would be a major step forward in transparency.

“The United States has not gotten enough credit for the reductions it has made,” he said. “That’s even true of the Bush administration.  It makes it easier for us to make the case that we are, in fact, reducing the number of nuclear weapons.”

NPT conferences -- held every five years – often become battles between nuclear haves and have-nots.  Several meetings have ended without final declarations.  Consensus is required.

It is likely that Iran will object to any final declaration restraining its uranium-enrichment program and long-range missile-launchers.

The United States and European nations undoubtedly will form a super-majority to punish countries that skirt regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

OLD SHOE

Hopefully, the Russian diplomats will edge to the sidelines with an old shoe when their Iranian sidekick gets uppity on Monday.

Who among us old timers can forget Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1960 banging his shoe at a United Nations General Assembly to emphasize his objection to a proposal he disliked?

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence --  but you have to mow it.

You can’t have everything.  Where would you put it?

-- Stener Wright

Stupidity is not a handicap.  Park elsewhere

The other line moves faster.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist