Nuclear Weapons: Destructors Or Saviors?

When one thinks of complete and total annihilation, the plumage of an

infamous mushroom cloud is undoubtedly an image which comes to mind. This

ominous image is ". . . a tiger which must be looked in the eye," (Looking the

Tiger in the Eye, 1982). The reason for which we must examine the issue of

nuclear weapons, is best stated in the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer, ". . .

until we have looked this tiger in the eye, we shall ever be in the worst of all

possible dangers, of which we may back into him." In an attempt to prevent

ourselves from backing into this proverbial tiger, we will discuss the following

subheadings of nuclear arms: should countries dismantle their nuclear arms; and

whether a nuclear war can occur, without resulting in a total nuclear holocaust

of both conflicting parties.

Virtually all, who know of the rise in modern-day technology, oppose the

first subheading, dismantling nuclear weapons; but, before stating their

reasoning, we will change our viewpoint to that of the naive (no insult

intended) or too optimistic. Assuming all nations dismantled their nuclear

weapons tomorrow; the world would be peaceful: no more nuclear weapons, no more

eminent destruction, no more bad guys. What? Exactly! How can we eliminate

the evil side of humans, their inherent dark side? This leads to the reason

supporting the maintenance of existing, and the development of future nuclear

weapons. When a nation, terrorist group, or someone with ill intent secures

sole-control of nuclear capabilities, the world will be at the mercy of this

group's sanity, since the world is currently nowhere near an acceptable

defensive system. So from this scenario, one can infer that in the present, the

only deterrent to nuclear war is the existence of nuclear arms in opposition to

each other.

The second subheading, whether a nuclear war can occur without

escalating into a victorless, nuclear holocaust, is an evolving argument due to

its dependency on modern technology. The two stances on this topic are known by

their acronyms of NUTS and MAD (Nuclear Utilization Target Selection, and

Mutually Assured Destruction respectively). The position taken by NUTS is that

limited use of nuclear weapons can occur, without igniting an all-out, nuclear

holocaust-resulting in the devastation of both conflicting parties, and hence a

mutual loss. The major fault on which NUTS lies is that no nuclear nation

possesses, or is expected to soon possess, an acceptable defensive shield

against nuclear weapons. While this fault is not due to our ability to destroy

inbound weapons, it is due to our accuracy in destroying the sheer quantity in