It's so much more than just Fukushima.
America may have dodged a couple of nuke bullets recently. Wildfires still blaze around the nuke weapons lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico where there was fear for the safety of an old nuclear waste dump. While the fires still rage Los Alamos officials report the imperiled nuke waste has been dug up and relocated to a nice, safe place.
"For Los Alamos, it's been a great day," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker said on Thursday. "Everything is holding." Now ain't that swell?
Over in Minot, North Dakota, sandbags and pumps have managed to keep 150-ballistic missile silos safe from the rampaging floodwaters of the Souris River. Yippee.
Meanwhile the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is about to release a report that pegs Pakistan as expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other nation on earth. At the rate they're going, Pakistan could have 200-nuclear warheads within ten years.
"Despite its political instability, Pakistan continues to steadily expand its nuclear capabilities and competencies; in fact, it has the world's fastest-growing nuclear stockpile," wrote analysis authors Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris.
But Pakistani muscle doesn't seem to faze the Yanks who are simply ignoring Pakistan's orders for them to clear out their drone operation at Shamsi air base.
U.S. forces continue to operate out of the Shamsi Air Base, located in an isolated part of Pakistan, and there are no preparations being made for them to leave regardless of Pakistani claims to the contrary, an informed U.S. official said.
"That base is neither vacated nor being vacated," the anonymous official said. Another U.S. government source backed up the remarks.
Oh, and yeah, Fukushima is still Fuk'd up and, according to Israel, Iran is still forging ahead with its effort to build the bomb.
What about Israel? Its size is smaller than State of New Jersey, population a little over seven million including two million Palestinians, and still it owns 150 to 200 nuclear war-heads according to former president Jimmy Carter. Why not make Middle East nuke free?
ReplyDeleteWhy not make the Middle East nuke free indeed. Here I do have some sympathy for Israel given the regional demographics. It's not unjustified in considering itself surrounded by enemies or, in most cases, potential enemies. It does bear some responsibility for that outcome but that's getting away from the nuke issue.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between an Iranian bomb and Israel's arsenal is Saudi Arabia. The Sauds have acquired a degree of confidence in Israel, at least enough that they can life with Israeli nukes. By contrast they've served notice that, if Iran gets nukes, so will they - presumably with a lot of help from Pakistan.
That's when you can truly see a domino effect in the ME. The more who have'em the more who'll feel they can never sleep soundly without their own. Like the western movies, everybody sits down to the poker table with a six shooter. Unlike a western, all those desperados may be playing cutthroat for the one glass of water on the table.
The only problem is that Israel has no moral authority to tell others in the region not to have nukes when it is armed with nukes to the teeth.
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