The Nuclear Dominoes

After discussing the Domino Theory, the U.S. policy of the 50's that promoted the belief that if one country came under the influence of communism, its neighboring countries would soon follow, it seems to me that today, we are living amidst a real domino effect when it comes to nations possessing nuclear arms. North Korea and Iran are both (likely) struggling to build nuclear programs against the will of the United States and the international community, and why? One of the most likely reasons is that they feel threatened as more and more nations develop nuclear weapons, these smaller nations understandably feel vulnerable without this incredible source of protection. So as more countries begin to arm themselves with nukes, even more countries will feel a desperate need to also develop this defense mechanism, hence creating a new sort of nuclear arms domino effect. So while Kim Jung Il and Ahmadinejad may be two insane leaders who should never be in possession of such destructive weapons, can we really blame them for wanting to be, when the rest of the world works to arm themselves?

I found an article discussing this topic, and it states that "CIA Director George J. Tenet warned yesterday that the 'desire for nuclear weapons is on the upsurge' among small countries, confronting the world with a new nuclear arms race that threatens to dismantle more than three decades of nonproliferation efforts. 'The 'domino theory' of the 21st century may well be nuclear,' Tenet said...'We have entered a new world of proliferation.'" Soon enough, many more countries could be in possession of nukes. With Iran and North Korea covertly constructing nuclear programs, we seem to be witnessing a secret nuclear arms race, and their acquisitions of nuclear weapons will only exacerbate the consequences of the nuclear domino effect. How do put a stop to these falling dominoes? The most obvious solution would be that no one have nukes. And while this is highly unrealistic, I think that before the United States try to get Iran, North Korea, and whoever else is trying to develop nuclear weapons, to terminate their programs, we should consider disassembling our own nuclear arsenal. If no one had them, no one would have justification for building them. Even if we claim to use them for the sole purpose of protecting our own citizens, before we even built this brutal weaponry, we should have further questioned the destructive power of nukes, their mass murder of people who, while they may be living in our enemy's territory, have no intention of harming our own people. One of the main questions we considered when studying war was when is killing civilians justified? And it seems that by simply possessing nuclear weapons, because they inevitably cause mass civilian casualties, countries make the statement that there are and will be times when killing thousands of innocent people is necessary. A human being is a human being, whether they be American, Vietnamese, Japanese, Russian, whatever, and before we construct a weapon that can kill hundreds of thousands, we must ask ourselves if owning, let alone dropping such a bomb, is ever really justified.