Intelligent Inquiry: U.S. and Russia Best Friends Forever

Lieberman: Obama Won't Get Nukes Treaty Without Changes

When it comes to international relations, I've been a straight realist. While the word is descriptive in its literal sense, in an academic sense it's the belief that states (countries) are constantly competing for resources, military capabilities, and international influence in order to ensure existence. I'd love the world to be different, but when it comes to world politics, this is what's at stake. However, a big shift took place in the 1940s: nuclear weapons. Suddenly states could no longer count their pennies and translate that into how many military units could be mobilized for security purposes. After the creation of nuclear weapons, conventional forces lost their potency as applied to major power conflict. A country could mobilize 1 million men, but that doesn't matter when a single missile can destroy a city. The major powers then proceeded to have an arms race while making nuclear policy on the fly. That's where we still are today.

I've lost my way in this post, but I'll come back and rally around the question: Does anyone still want these things around (nuclear weapons)? I understand that nuclear weapons have undoubtably deterred a number of wars in the past, but I can't help shake the age old fear of MAD when it comes to nukes. If you're not familiar with the concept, MAD (mutually assured destruction) was the realization in the heat of the arms race that nobody on earth could survive a nuclear exchange that would take place if something broke out between the USSR and the US. So going back to my question, who still wants these things around? Lieberman? Palin? What is wrong with them? This treaty doesn't even eliminate all nuclear weapons. Not even close. But Lieberman says he'll oppose the treaty unless we update out nuclear stockpile. Again, I would like to bring your attention to MAD. Unfortunately, I'm sure many people will rally behind his claim that this treaty makes us "vulnerable to Iran." All I can say is that even with this treaty, we'll still likely be able to destroy the earth a few times over with our nuclear weapons and I'm sure if we choose that route we won't forget about Iran.