Securing Loose Nukes

2007-09-26T06:13:00.000-05:00

I've never understood how countries like America and Russia can be so effective in protecting their respective gold storage sites while at the same time seeming utterly incompetent when it comes to securing nuclear material. How much money is America spending to fight an ineffective "war on drugs" compared with expenditures to secure weapons-grade nuclear material? How silly the debate over Mexican immigration is going to seem when a terrorist organization gets its hands on some plutonium!

When one thinks of loose nukes, one inevitably things of Russia after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. They have had little difficulty protecting the treasures in the Kremlin vaults but did not seem to view nuclear security as a priority. If only they had realized what was at stake. One wonders how long it will be before the world pays for this inexcusable negligence.

The situation is certainly better in America, even if we do have our own mind-blowing errors. And yet, we are demonstrating embarrassingly little leadership when it comes to either nuclear nonproliferation or global efforts to secure nuclear material. Wouldn't a fraction of the funds we are wasting on either an unjust war in Iraq or an ineffective war on drugs at home fund large scale efforts to secure nuclear material around the world? This is the sort of failure to act from which we may not have an opportunity to learn.

Remember Bush's colorful imagery about defeating Saddam before there was a mushroom cloud? I wonder why this same rhetoric has not been applied to make a case for securing the Cold War arsenals around the world. Surely, this is an effort the American people would get behind!

So what is the solution? How about an international coalition lead by the United States and Russia? Our two countries are largely responsible for the mess and should bear the financial burden. However, we are certainly not alone in wanting a safer world and in having contributed to the problem. Even if you favor maintaining a nuclear arsenal, it is difficult to imagine that anybody could seriously want terrorists getting their hands on nuclear material. Why isn't this a priority?

Tags: loose nukes, nuclear, national security, America, Russia, defense, politics

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