On Justifications for Nuclear War

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
-Albert Einstein

At a recent debate, the Republican contenders for president, save one – Ron Paul of Texas – either explicitly or implicitly supported the use of a “tactical” nuclear strike against Iran should we find the need to prevent Iran from acquiring equipment, such as a centrifuge, needed to build a nuclear weapon.

Nobody wants Iran to get the Bomb (except, perhaps, Iran), but the irony of a policy position endorsing a nuclear strike of any kind in order to prevent nuclear technology from spreading only brings closer the scenario Einstein lays out in this quote.

Much to Einstein’s horror, the genie is out of the bottle. No simple-minded Manichean worldview will ever get it back in or make the world safer from the consequences of it being set loose in the first place.

 

Read my essay at ProperlyChastised.com: Nuclear Weapons Will Save Us From Nuclear Weapons  

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