Nuclear Weapons

2 Pages 569 Words

Nuclear Weapons
The controlling of nuclear weapons dates back to the first ineffective arms negotiations at the, “Hague Conferences which took place in 1899 and 1907,”1 as stated by Tom Bethell in his article “No Nukes America”. Many conferences such as the Hague Conference, have set a standard to the limitation of nuclear weapons throughout the world. Mr Bethell claims that, “Ever since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear warfare has declined,”1 despite the fact that at any second, any country can be destroyed with the push of a single button. Nuclear weapons are probably the biggest threat in the world today.
The belief that there should be nuclear weapons in the world is supported by Tom Bethell who is a Washington correspondent for the American Spectator. Mr. Bethell basically writes about how the U.S. has practically stopped the production of nuclear weapons. He also explains that now that the U.S. has delayed production, they are behind in the technological aspect of nuclear weapons compared to other nuclear weapon countries. Mr. Bethell states the stoppage of testing by saying, “The refusal to allow further testing ensures that nuclear weapons technology will become increasingly outdated.”1 Mr. Bethell also claims that because of the shut down of the plants, the, “Weapons plants were stigmatized as contaminated sites, ‘hot spots,’ sources of hazardous waste.”1 Also, Mr. Bethell states that, “The Department of Energy has estimated that cleaning up these sites will cost $300 billion – more than the annual defense budget.”1
Mr. Bethell’s main point of the article is that because of the closing of the plants, and the stoppage of the testings of nuclear weapons, the U.S. will feel less secure because they will be so far behind the major nuclear countries (Russia, France, China) in the technological aspect of nuclear weapons. Mr. Bethell asks the question, “Will we feel more...