Global Nuclear Proliferation

George Bush is sending a clear message to the world: if you want to defend yourself, you must produce Nuclear Weapons. Iran and North Korea have faced none of United State’s aggression, while Iraq, a far less imminent threat, has. A well known specialist in United States foreign policy warned that the, “general strategy of preventive war” employed by the United States, provides other countries with, “overwhelming incentives to wield weapons of terror and mass destruction” as a deterrent to “the unbridled use of American power”.

This message was reiterated with the invasion of Iraq in 2002. The Bush Administration will gladly invade the devastated and defenseless Iraq; however, not North Korea, a much more tyrannous and dangerous country, because in doing so, great amounts of damage will most likely be inflicted on ourselves, a risk out of the question. This Friday, North Korea heeded the lesson by announcing that it had nuclear weapons, planned to continue to build them, and refused to negotiate. Mr. Bush, in an attempt to distance himself from the diplomacy of the Clinton Administration and the US North Korea Nuclear Pact, taught the world that, as foreign policy specialist Kenneth Waltz says, “the United States can be held at bay only by deterrence” and that “weapons of mass destruction are the only means to deter [us].” Tactful and enlightened diplomacy is the only means to truly curtail weapons of mass destruction proliferation, not aggression. Let’s hope Mr. Bush learns his lesson before it’s too late.