Colorless Green Ideas

The Facts of Life

The positive aspects of globalization are often overlooked in favor of sustaining the “proliferation is the globalization of weapons of mass destruction” argument. This is a painfully unrealistic viewpoint that is being perpetuated endlessly by our irresponsible media and the widespread ignorance that it instills. The majority of the population of the ‘free’ world places the responsibility of nuclear proliferation in the hands of foreign states painted as barbaric, uncivilized threats by the media, when in reality most countries are compelled to build nuclear arsenals primarily because of the largely unilateral actions taken by the United States.

The enactment of the National Missile Defense program in 2000 by President Bush is one such action. Justified by its ability to defend the U.S. against ballistic missile attacks from “rogue states,” the Missile Defense program actually endangers arms control and non-proliferation agreements, potentially reigniting a disastrous international arms race. In fact, the NMD program has already thwarted one of the world’s biggest opportunities for nuclear disarmament: in January of 2000, Russia offered to reduce its nuclear stockpile by 1,500 deployed weapons if the United States dropped its NMD program. The U.S. refused and immediately dropped out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed in 1972, so that the NMD program could be implemented.

It is well known that the construction of the NMD program has greatly antagonized a number of foreign nations, most notably China, “the one country that has the human and economic resources, the cultural cohesiveness, and quite possibly the political will to emerge as a superpower.” China’s opposition of the NMD program comes from its fear that it will be extended to include Japan and Taiwan, which is viewed as a renegade province. Because of the NMD, and the treaty that was abolished to implement it, China has been warning the U.S. of a potential arms race since 2001.

On January 29, 2002, President Bush gave a controversial speech in which he named Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as parts of an “Axis of Evil.” While the speech was effective in rallying the American people, Bush’s infamous “Axis of Evil” rhetoric caused serious repercussions abroad. How could the countries singled-out by the speech not sit up and take notice of such provocative language? A year later, an American-led coalition entered Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Bush’s aggressive assertions coupled with military action sent warning signals to Iran and North Korea, and anyone else feeling threatened by American unilateralism, to further develop their nuclear arsenals.

The United States has always had a double standard regarding nuclear weapons. While using stockpiles of WMD ( stockpiles that did not even exist ) to justify the war in Iraq, Pakistan, one of the biggest proliferators in the world, was welcomed with open arms into the American-led coalition in the so-called “war on terror.” Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to turn a blind eye to Israel’s growing nuclear arsenal, which has been developing and proliferating quite freely since the 1960's.

Ironically, the United States remains the world’s biggest advocate of nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation of WMD. Yet while President Bush’s administration claims to be devoted to the cause, the United States is currently developing a plethora of nuclear innovations. The first new class of U.S. nukes since the end of the cold war includes warheads capable of destroying bunkers that lie deep underground ( as far as 300 meters ) and “mini-nukes,” designed to eliminate stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons.

The double standards and internationally harmful actions of the United States have undeniably aided in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. While an increasingly interdependent world may make it easier for states to obtain WMD, the focus ought to be on the reasons that drive states to proliferate in the first place, most of which have much more to do with corporate greed ( weapons manufacturers stand to make over $13 billion in profits from the National Missile Defense Program ) and American unilateralism than the process of globalization.

posted by Sylpheed @ 11:20 PM