Nuclear weapons

Mir Mahboob Ali, Freelance consultant
With intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq the United States of America has been able to create a serious threat of instability in the Middle East and Southeast Asia region with chaotic conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan while India and Bangladesh are already suffering from its fallout. To some extent, the Afghan intervention is understandable but the seizure of Iraq defies all logical interpretations. It is almost unpardonable that a power like the USA with extremely sophisticated electronic spying devices and superbly trained manpower for espionage and counter espionage activities would commit the mistake of wrongly assessing the military capability of Baghdad as gravely as it did. But, might is right, who would question the mightiest on the earth? If restraint does not come with might it is devastating , therefore uninhibited demonstration of power may bring the downfall of the mighty as it did innumerable times in history. The Romans fell, the Muslims at the height of their might were destroyed by half civilized barbarians, recently the British Empire disintegrated. Nuclear Iran is a threat, so is a Nuclear Pakistan, a Nuclear India and for that matter any Nuclear power is a threat to civilization. Has the USA used nuclear weapon judiciously when it unleashed that immense diabolic power on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or will the atomic states be able to use that power without causing unforeseen devastation? It is argued that that power is more a deterrent than an offensive weapon. If that is such a powerful deterrent as to be able to stop wars then every state has a right to possess that power. Since, possession of nuclear power by all the states is a sure passage to destruction of the humankind, it is an absurd proposition and therefore, the alternative is to disarm those that possess that power. The irony is that the United States is not suffering the direct consequences of its mistakes.