wmd's



before we get too carried away with this question of rogue nations' weapons of mass destruction, let's refresh the knowledge base about which nations really do possess them. it looks like this (detailed analysis at the center for defense information and the national resources defense council (NRDC):

total number of nuclear weapons possessed by

Pakistan ........................ 24-48
India ............................. 60+
United Kingdom ............. 185
Israel ............................ 200+
France .......................... 350
China ............................ 400
Russia ........................... ~10,000
United States ................. 10,656

and let's throw in a few random expenditure figures for good measure

$3.5 trillion: amount the United States spent between 1940 and 1995 to prepare to fight a nuclear war.

$27 billion: amount the United States spends annually to prepare to fight a nuclear war.

$2.2 billion: cost of one B-2 bomber (21 were authorized by Congress).

$2.5 billion: the lifecycle cost of each B-2 (RDT&E, procurement, operations, maintenance, and support).

these indisputable statistics bespeak a pathology of folly - the terrible, craven acceptance of a great nation's literal descent into insanity, the toll of that decades-long inhabitation of the crypto-hallucinogenic atmosphere of paranoia that drew the leaders of the world's two superpowers into an ever-escalating face-off. the bald truth is that the west's 'victory' in the cold war was simply a function of its limitless credit: the former USSR was forced to bankrupt itself to keep step with the MAD (mutually assured destruction) numbers game. in consequence, the fate of the entire planet has come to rest on the shoulders of a series of mediocre men whose policies have been dictated by the multinationals who bankrolled that nuclear insanity. the current incumbent - this Texan dilettante with a very limited grasp on reality - is hardly bothering to conceal the real purpose behind his presidency: to plunder the entire globe in order to make the richest men on earth even richer.
as a citizen of the country with, literally, infinitely more wmd's than have been discovered in the country we helped invade in order to pre-empt its 45-minute-imminent (for that's what they told us) capacity to use them on us (a slight - ahem - exaggeration?) I ask this of my great leader: what, exactly, are you defending me and my family and friends from that justifies the continued presence in my backyard of 185 armed, active, excruciatingly vulnerable, and exorbitantly cash-absorbent nuclear warheads?
(citizens of the US already know the answer, of course - all 10,656 of yours are targeted on Nusquam and Ubique, the twin capitals of the People's Republic of Terror)