TOKYO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Japan on Sunday marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Hiroshima, where its mayor urged the abolition of nuclear weapons and called the Group of Seven leaders’ notion of nuclear deterrence a “folly”.
Isn’t nuclear deterrence preventing the use of nukes, tho? 🤔 I mean, it does this by having nukes around to launch because the threat is “you launch yours, we launch ours and everybody dies. Do you wanna die? No? Then don’t launch a nuke.” But it seems to be effective. No one outside of Japan when nukes first came out has ever been nuked by another country.
The only way we will ever remove nuclear weapons will be when we remove the threat from invasive and terrorist actions of other countries. We need an international force that is set up just to protect the status quo of borders around the world. With that we also need an answer to terrorism from foreign states. As soon as you make it impossible for an invasion to take place then you can guarantee that some states will head straight to terrorist acts for intimidation. Until all countries sign up to this, we must keep the deterrent.
Imagine how could be saved if we removed the need to spend on defence. Currently we spend $2.2t across the world on killing each other. It is a shocking waste.
How have nuclear weapons helped us against invasive and terrorist actions?
Has it somehow stopped conflicts between major powers (NATO, Russia, China)? No more than would be expected from countries that don’t really order each other and aren’t pursuing aggressive territorial expansion that threaten each other.
Has it ended all wars? Obviously not, given that Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine all happened.
Has a nuclear deterrent made nations more peaceful? No, but globalization has.
A nuclear deterrent exists solely to discourage other nuclear-bearing countries from trying to cripple you. The only steady-state for this is that everyone who is under threat by a nuclear-bearing country will eventually develop nuclear weapons.
In recent history: the Americans because of the Nazis, the Soviets because of the Americans, the British because of the Soviets, the French because of the Soviets (and, to some degree, the British), the Chinese because of the Americans AND the Soviets (they really got unlucky here), the Israelis because of literally everyone (extra unlucky), the Indians because of the Chinese, the Pakistanis is because of the Indians, and the North Koreans because of the Americans. And of course, today Iran is trying to build up a nuclear arsenal to combat Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
All your policy will do is incentivize everyone to develop nuclear weapons.
I really do not understand your comments? I am in favour of removing nuclear weapons. I also understand why we cannot without a unilateral understanding among all nations.
What is very obvious is that if we do not move in that direction, then some clown will learn how to make them, and then we will have a nuclear war.
Why does the removal of nuclear weapons predicate itself on countries agreeing on borders? As it stands, countries develop nuclear weapons solely because they’re afraid that nuclear weapons will be used against them (or, you’re North Korea and the West has already expended their entire sanctions repertoire to go after human rights violations and now has no recourse against nuclear weapons development).
Countries may fight over borders, but the involvement of nuclear weapons turns what should be a localized dispute into a global one with world-ending consequences.
Or you know they could just stop trying to grab more land. At the end of the day that is the solution we all want.
Protecting the territorial sovereignty of countries internationally would have prevented Iraq and Afghanistan. It would stop Israeli efforts in the West Bank. It would block the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. It would block the skirmishes between India and China as well as India and Pakistan. It would have blocked NATO intervention into the Yugoslav crisises until international consensus could be reached. Borders are constantly in a state of flux and the international community almost never reaches full consensus.
Borders are not immutable objects, particularly for ethnically-unified countries. For Yugoslavia, the borders were carved into ethnic groups. For Ukraine, the borders are being carved into Russian and Ukrainian areas. For Israel, the borders are constantly being expanded for one particular ethnic group. As long as there are ethnic boundaries, there will be conflict between them. That’s what makes us human. We are not a single entity; we have hundreds of distinct and unique cultures and languages and foods.
NATO intervention in the Yugoslavian conflict was humanitarian only. They were criticised for not participating to stop massacres that they witnessed.
Civil wars would be a difficult one. They would probably have to enforce the right to self determination, but even then cases like Israel complicates even this.
Terrorism is the product of the West financing such groups in proxy wars.
Pretty stupid generalisation. Terrorism comes from many areas including governments. Putin’s attack on citizens in the UK was state terrorism against his own people.
Yes, Western governments that fund terrorist groups in “enemies of the State” that later turn against the US and the US “needs” to go an invade those countries to “liberate” the region.
the West isn’t the only one who does this bud
You are right, they’re only the biggest and more illustrious example of such behaviour.
Except the west does not try to take over that country and hold onto it as a colony. They have grew out of that era. Every country that has been invaded, has been in response to another action, and in every occasion they have handed the country back to the people it belongs to. How they have handed it back leaves a lot to criticise. But you cannot say it was done with malice. Russia is guilty of extending its borders into other countries for no other reason than conquest.
Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, northern Mexico which is now Texas, all of this without taking into account that the US is itself a settler state that massacred all its indigenous population and that literally inspired Nazi Germany. I haven’t even mentioned territories which are still colonies to this day by Europe by the way.
you mean the only one most open about it which is why they have a problem with conspiracy theory folks.
china, russia, Saudi arabia.
you think they’re open about what their dark money funds? do they have any openness about any illicit behavior by their government? no. they lie about it or there is never a chance it is heard about because of a massive lack of transparency
the problem is all of these governments and when you do what you’re doing now, you just serve as a pawn in their game.
china is literally funding russia right now against Ukraine, puppet state war. saudi arabia funds zealots all over africa and the middle east - sudan, jordan, nigeria
they all do it
Releasing files of black ops you did 50 years ago is not being open about it, the US would never publish black ops they are doing now because otherwise it would undermine the effects of such proxy wars. Furthermore, much of what we now is not so much releasing that information but because there are brave whistleblowers who release information regarding the war crimes.
Still, I don’t see how the fact that some other countries do maybe similar stuff, since again it is all theories since until information is released we cannot confirm anything (not that I doubt some countries do fund military groups) that doesn’t make my statement that the West has the biggest and most illustrious history of funding terrorist groups in what they deem enemies of the West.
You know what’s a “folly”? Not recognizing your war crimes.
It’s something typical of the West.
I’ve found the past few years that I haven’t been aware of significant dates as they approach and pass by. Hiroshima day, Pearl Harbor day, Kent State day have all surprised me recently. Not sure if it’s getting older or a sign of how ridiculous shit has gotten.
It’s the last one. If you remembered every sad day, it would be every day.
