NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 11 March) — Without any provocation, the United States is raining Iran with its devastating missiles.
The reason, accordingly, is to nip at the bud its production of nuclear weapons. The US has, time and again, prohibited Iran from joining the elite nuclear club, whose members are states that possess nuclear arsenals with the capacity to wipe out mankind from the face of the earth.
The states that have developed and possessed nuclear arms are the United States (1945), Russia (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), China (1964), India (1974), Pakistan (1998), and North Korea (2006). Israel is believed to have acquired nuclear weapons around 1967, but has never openly tested or formally acknowledged having them.
If all these nuclear arms explode, either by design or accident, it is possible that humankind will disappear and the planet Earth will be lost from its orbit. The nuclear-weapons states know this. That is why the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and China, all permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have come out and entered the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), knowing that an unlimited production of nuclear arms increases the possibility of the annihilation of mankind. However, Israel, India, and Pakistan never signed the NPT, on the thought, perhaps, that what they have is not yet enough and competitive. North Korea acceded to joining the NPT in 1985 before announcing withdrawal in 2003. So the production of nukes continues to this day.
The US failed to stop North Korea from producing nukes because it has the backing of China. It is avoiding any antagonism with this military and economic giant, now its important trading partner. Moreover, with North Korea under the influence of China, the rogue state won’t dare make any move, notwithstanding the toxic rhetoric of its Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, to disturb the present world order without the nod of its patron.
The US needs to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons because it is, accordingly, a rogue, unstable, and unpredictable state that has vowed to erase Israel from the map. With a weapon of mass destruction, it could ignite a war that would end all wars.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)
