PressTVGlobalNews | November 09, 2010 - This episode of Press TV's "A Simple Question" is about nuclear weapons; a strategic deterrent that responsible countries should have and should keep, or a threat so great that they should abolish altogether.
The US tested the world's first nuclear bomb in New Mexico, 1945. On the 6th of August that year, the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. 3 days later another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The US justification for these actions was that dropping the bomb was necessary to end the 2nd world war.
The dropping of the Hiroshima bomb heralded the start of the atomic age. The USSR developed its first weapon in 1949, the UK in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964. These nations and many more signed the NPT in an attempt to control nuclear weapons at the international level. The treaty consists of 3 central pillars:
- First, all nuclear states agreed not to help non-nuclear states acquire nuclear weapons.
- Second, all nuclear states would move towards disarming their own nuclear weapons.
- Third, all countries -- both nuclear and non-nuclear -- were granted the right to develop their own nuclear energy programs.
Pakistan and India developed nuclear weapons with the support of the US. In 2006, North Korea tested its first nuclear missile. Israel officially has a policy of ambiguity; it neither confirms nor denies whether it has nuclear weapons. The US and a number of other countries accuse Iran of covertly trying to make nuclear weapons and as a result, the US, UN, and EU have all placed economic sanctions on Iran. But Tehran rejects the west's double standards and insists its nuclear program is just for peaceful purposes; it's enriching uranium to meet its energy needs.
In the UK and around the world resistance to nuclear weapons continues.
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