According to news reports, the U.S. Defence Department mistakenly shipped secret nuclear fuses to Taiwan 18 months ago and did not realize its blunder until only last week. Given the sensitivity of China’s policy vis a vis Taiwan, which China says is an integral part of it under the One-China policy, this gross act of negligence is bound to attract suspicion. Taiwan is the biggest U.S. arms customer and has received more than 10 billion dollars in arms purchases which include sophisticated weapons and F-16s.
This is not the first instance that a high level investigation has been ordered in the U.S. over errors involving strategic weapons or its components. In August last year, the Air Force lost track of six nuclear warheads for 36 hours when they were inadvertently flown on a B-52 bomber between bases in North Dakota and Louisiana. The incident exposed security flaws and raised similar questions about the safety of U.S. nuclear weapons.
These incidents highlight that the threat that the world faces from weapons of mass destruction does not only emanate from the alleged underground terrorists who seek such sophisticated weapons and threaten humanity. It is the mass stockpile of the nuclear weapons themselves possessed and maintained by the official members of the nuclear club, headed by the U.S., which poses the gravest threat to humanity. The U.S. arguably has the largest and most complex nuclear safety system which allegedly ‘minimizes the risk of unauthorized detonations’. However the incidents involving its nuclear assets undermine the capacity of the U.S. to control its inventory.
The North Koreans and the Iranians must be secretly laughing as the U.S., which has lead the isolationist approach towards these two countries, as it seems unable to assert itself as a power able to command its own nuclear arsenal. Similarly, the safety of nuclear weapons of Pakistan has also been made an issue, which has been blown out of proportion in comparison to the threat the world faces from a super power, which has suddenly lost track and count of where its strategic weapons are located at what time and place and ‘mistakenly’ ships nuclear parts instead of helicopter batteries.
The Foreign Office of Pakistan must take note of the matter and relay its concern over the matter, as all of us are stakeholders of a safe world, where no nuclear weapon is ever detonated. This would not only reassert our responsibility as a nuclear state but also send a clear message from the newly formed government that it is prepared to take a principled stance on every issue, even if it involves our so-called ‘friend’, the U.S. When the U.S. is not prepared to exercise retrain when it comes to its so-called concerns over the safety of our nuclear weapons and draws up covert plans to capture them, we must stand by our much time tested friend-China and review our relations with the U.S. which has done more harm than good.
The U.S. must undertake huge efforts to reduce its strategic arms, now that the Cold-War is over. In the event that it is unable to control them as seems to be the case, it must seriously think about giving them up completely in the larger interest of mankind. Perhaps the answer is not nuclear non-proliferation and reduction. A world free of nuclear weapons is the most assured path of survival for the generations to come, and perhaps as the U.S. has proved by its ‘errors’, for this generation as well. It seems like in the ‘pursuit to save the world’ that the U.S. undertakes in dictating the haves and have nots in the nuclear club, it is loosing track of what is happening in its own backyard.
This is not the first instance that a high level investigation has been ordered in the U.S. over errors involving strategic weapons or its components. In August last year, the Air Force lost track of six nuclear warheads for 36 hours when they were inadvertently flown on a B-52 bomber between bases in North Dakota and Louisiana. The incident exposed security flaws and raised similar questions about the safety of U.S. nuclear weapons.
These incidents highlight that the threat that the world faces from weapons of mass destruction does not only emanate from the alleged underground terrorists who seek such sophisticated weapons and threaten humanity. It is the mass stockpile of the nuclear weapons themselves possessed and maintained by the official members of the nuclear club, headed by the U.S., which poses the gravest threat to humanity. The U.S. arguably has the largest and most complex nuclear safety system which allegedly ‘minimizes the risk of unauthorized detonations’. However the incidents involving its nuclear assets undermine the capacity of the U.S. to control its inventory.
The North Koreans and the Iranians must be secretly laughing as the U.S., which has lead the isolationist approach towards these two countries, as it seems unable to assert itself as a power able to command its own nuclear arsenal. Similarly, the safety of nuclear weapons of Pakistan has also been made an issue, which has been blown out of proportion in comparison to the threat the world faces from a super power, which has suddenly lost track and count of where its strategic weapons are located at what time and place and ‘mistakenly’ ships nuclear parts instead of helicopter batteries.
The Foreign Office of Pakistan must take note of the matter and relay its concern over the matter, as all of us are stakeholders of a safe world, where no nuclear weapon is ever detonated. This would not only reassert our responsibility as a nuclear state but also send a clear message from the newly formed government that it is prepared to take a principled stance on every issue, even if it involves our so-called ‘friend’, the U.S. When the U.S. is not prepared to exercise retrain when it comes to its so-called concerns over the safety of our nuclear weapons and draws up covert plans to capture them, we must stand by our much time tested friend-China and review our relations with the U.S. which has done more harm than good.
The U.S. must undertake huge efforts to reduce its strategic arms, now that the Cold-War is over. In the event that it is unable to control them as seems to be the case, it must seriously think about giving them up completely in the larger interest of mankind. Perhaps the answer is not nuclear non-proliferation and reduction. A world free of nuclear weapons is the most assured path of survival for the generations to come, and perhaps as the U.S. has proved by its ‘errors’, for this generation as well. It seems like in the ‘pursuit to save the world’ that the U.S. undertakes in dictating the haves and have nots in the nuclear club, it is loosing track of what is happening in its own backyard.
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