Nuclear Nightmare.

BY : SULIMAN EBRAHIM LLB. BARRISTER

Renewed hostilities in Kashmir and skirmishes across the border between Pakistan and India in the closing year of the Christian millennium have undoubtedly put the fear of God into the mortals of the temporal. More especially after India and Pakistan forcibly blasted their way into the club of nuclear powers earlier in the same year. Humanity can then be justifiably horror-struck as the nuclear nightmare de profundis takes one step closer to becoming a reality. The nuclear tests in quick succession in the Indian subcontinent- most of man will undoubtedly homologate- has now made the world a more dangerous to place live in as man enters the 21st century.

A major nuclear confrontation absit omen as most beings rightly perceive could spell the end of the world. But will any country on planet earth dare to embark on such a suicidal course? Before speculating on who or how the population of the world could be destroyed by these evil weapons of mass destruction: it appears is self-deprecatingly obliged to rid itself of the evil that it itself created. The idea that that the five nuclear powers or permanent members of the Security Council- before India and Pakistan blasted their way into the nuclear club- were responsibly qualified to possess an evil nuclear capability is at best hogwash and at worst disingenuous. Bearing in mind that it was the Americans who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Russians who shocked the world with the nuclear accident in Chernobyl: should ipso facto tell the people of the world that there is no such thing as a responsible nuclear power. The strongest argument in favour of nuclear weapons- peace on earth for over 50 years- or more appropriately the containment of a third world war- is also sensu stricto a flawed assessment. It is true that the nuclear standoff between the former USSR and USA put paid to any major confrontation in the world. But to suggest that the world has been more secure since the introduction of nuclear weapons is an outrage. This even more so if the pundits acknowledge that it was always only a question of time before countries like India and Pakistan joined the nuclear club. Now with a Hindu Bomb, a Muslim Bomb, a Jewish Bomb and Christian and atheist Bombs, the world has become an infinitely more deadly place to live in. But the God-fearing nil desperandum can take much comfort from the fact that man tant Mieux is not in sole control of its destiny. Doomsday Dei gratia can neither be advanced nor delayed. The Believers will further undoubtedly appreciate the need for one evil to be checked by another to avoid the mayhem in the temporal. Then the fact that both godless nations and proudly secular nations possess weapons of mass destruction should not unduly concern the believers. A limited nuclear confrontation, however, cannot be ruled out. But as it remains in the hands of the human race to avoid any nuclear confrontation of whatsoever nature: mankind should evidently stop haggling over who is and who is not a responsible nuclear power and proceed immediately to the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty [CTBT] and Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT] could then be replaced by some form of Elimination Treaty. Any delay in implementing a universal policy for the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction- a man apparently has to fully appreciate- will inevitably lead not only to a spread of these weapons but moreover to major disasters in large parts of the planet that will almost certainly affect all the people of the world.

Humanity further may be correct in its evaluation that the two most powerful nuclear powers- America and Russia- are unlikely to wage a nuclear war against each other. But a Muslim-Hindu or Muslim-Jewish nuclear clash has now entered the realm of reality. And if Israel as it is widely believed does possess a nuclear capability: the Muslims of the Middle East will undoubtedly obtain these weapons of mass destruction soon.

Mankind will furthermore no doubt appreciate that money in these evil times can buy just about anything. The idea consequently that the NPT is an effective means of controlling the spread of weapons of mass destruction is self-evidently self-defeating. Man, it thus appears has no choice but to do a great deal more to eliminate all the weapons of mass destruction on planet earth.

China’s proposal following the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests that the five permanent members of the Security Council close ranks to form a new Super Club is certainly a possibility. But even if the planet was to be divided into say a Muslim and non-Muslim world: the idea that the non-Muslims could indefinitely keep the Muslims down should be dismissed with the contempt that it deserves.

Whatever the future holds or whichever way the blocs formulate their policies- nuclear or weapons of mass destruction will affect the entire population of the world in some way or another. Their consummate elimination from the face of the earth is then unquestionably the best course of action.

And since man proposes but God disposes: the truth till Armageddon could be told without the use of weapons of mass destruction or mass destruction using these weapons. The God-fearing will then undoubtedly be pleased to note that mere mortals cannot frustrate God Almighty’s agenda for planet earth.

But what the evil mortal would perhaps be well advised to do is to eliminate the evil weapons of mass destruction that he himself created if he is to spare himself the radiation burns that will doubtlessly follow him to Hell.i