4th May 2015
Contributing Writer for Wake Up World
The recent "news" on the nuclear situation in Iran brings to light the madhouse of cards on which the postmodern world is built. Or rather, it would bring the madness to light if the major media outlets of the world were not bought up and sold out to the military industrial complex, and therefore completely misinformed on the actions and dangers of the nuclear experimentation industry.
The story is not just about how Iran wants to join the club of failed nuclear experimentation states, though that is certainly worthy of raising an eyebrow. This story is not just about the threat to nearby states, or the implications to global relations. The story is not just about how they could be so ill minded, and short sighted as to look for solutions in a dirty technology"
The real story is that playing with nuclear fire -- the Pandora's Box of nuclear experimentation -- is a threat to all life on Earth, and yet today the rise of the nuclear state has become just another part of our collective 'energy' and 'war' narratives. The real story is that, in our collective madness, we fail to recognize that Iran's engagement in nuclear experimentation is no different than our own -- and that the sum total of all this nuclear madness is mutually assured destruction.
Total M.A.D.nessUsed to describe the inevitable outcome of any military nuclear action, the acronym M.A.D. stands for mutual assured destruction. The M.A.D. theory is that a balance of apocalyptic armament puts opposing nuclear nations in a stalemate, where it would be impossible for one to annihilate the other with nukes without facing annihilation themselves. If the accepted narrative is to be believed, the understanding of 'mutually assured destruction' on both sides is why the Cold War never went Hot.
Is it any coincidence that the industry acronym for the inevitable outcome of any military nuclear action is M.A.D.? By their own reckoning, mutual destruction is assured on all sides of the nuclear war machine in the event of a nuclear strike -- yet nations continue to arm themselves, writing conventions to mitigate their liability while provoking other nations that arm themselves. In their 'fight for peace', they are scrambling down the rabbit hole to mutually assured M.A.D.ness.
If this M.A.D. balance was at all sustainable, one might even wish to see Iran armed, and believe that arming Iran would bring M.A.D. balance -- because after all it is well known, though not officially recognized -- that Israel already has nuclear weapons. But therein is the opening into the madness of the situation; the reality is already so twisted that one might see it as a "solution" that an individual or institution possesses a mechanism that instantly kills, maims and deforms en masse, and poisons ecosystems for countless generations to come, just because the institutions that threaten them have those same mechanisms, which kill and maim and deform and poison.
Make no mistake, this is a contrived polarity. The only way to end the M.A.D.ness is to disarm, not arm the opposition.
Critical ThinkingWhen we investigate the reality of M.A.D., and the propaganda that accompanies nuclear experimentation (both military and power generation) we soon realize it IS absolute madness.
Firstly, the notion that nuclear experimentation is regulated is a fallacy. While eight States have detonated nuclear weapons, only the five member nations of the United Nations Security Council (the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China) are considered to be "nuclear-weapon states" under by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. [1] However three other States that were not parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty have conducted nuclear tests since the NPT was enacted in 1970 (India, Pakistan, and North Korea).
Meanwhile Israel remains the nuclear white elephant in the room. Widely believed to have nuclear weapons, Israel continues to deny its nuclear status, casting further unknowns into the nuclear mix.
According to the Federation of American Scientists' report Status of World Nuclear Forces:
More than two decades after the Cold War ended, the world's combined inventory of nuclear warheads remains at a very high level: approximately 15,700. Of these, around 4,100 warheads are considered operational, of which about 1,800 US and Russian warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.
Despite significant reductions in US, Russian, French and British nuclear forces compared with Cold War levels, all the nuclear weapon states continue to modernize their remaining nuclear forces and appear committed to retaining nuclear weapons for the indefinite future. For an overview of global modernization programs, see this 2014 article:Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists -- Slowing nuclear weapon reductions and endless nuclear weapon modernizations: A challenge to the NPT.
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