"What, me worry?"Following the end of the Cold War, you might have thought that nuclear armageddon, that old Damoclean sword hanging over, you know, humanity, would have been consigned to the dustbin of history, right next to busts of Lenin, government-manufactured vodka, and parades with missile launchers. Well, lemme tell ya something: RONG. Since Gorbachev started making Louis Vuitton ads, Pakistan and India have gone public with their nuclear arsenals, North Korea has developed a nuclear capability, and the Iranians are thought to be working on a bomb - though evidence has recently surfaced that their covert program had ceased in 2003. Additionally, the rise of nihilist terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda have raised the spectre of a nuclear-armed foe who cannot be deterred, determined to obtain the bomb and use it to strike within the United States. And we haven't even gotten around to the old Ivan Drago to our Rocky Balboa, Russia, which has announced plans to develop a new generation of modernized ICBMs and has resumed nuclear-armed bomber patrols.
(Of course, we've refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, pushed development of nuclear "bunker busters" with theoretically tactical applications, broached the possibility of modernizing our own missile forces, and committed to develop some kind of strategic missile defense program. Furthermore, we have promised to share civilian nuclear technology with India in flagrant violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty - to which America is a signatory, and India is not. To be fair, the Bush Administration has also consistently pushed arsenal reductions.)
Luckily for us, Jonathan Schell has been monitoring the continuing threat, and has graced us with a book outlining his findings: The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger. Leonard Lopate, being one step ahead of the game as usual, has managed to eat Schell's knowledge by asking him mad questions.
(Of course, we've refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, pushed development of nuclear "bunker busters" with theoretically tactical applications, broached the possibility of modernizing our own missile forces, and committed to develop some kind of strategic missile defense program. Furthermore, we have promised to share civilian nuclear technology with India in flagrant violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty - to which America is a signatory, and India is not. To be fair, the Bush Administration has also consistently pushed arsenal reductions.)
Luckily for us, Jonathan Schell has been monitoring the continuing threat, and has graced us with a book outlining his findings: The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger. Leonard Lopate, being one step ahead of the game as usual, has managed to eat Schell's knowledge by asking him mad questions.
