The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, supposedly the bulwark against the spread of the most fearsome weapons man has created, has not been doing well lately. First, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, deviating from his nation’s policy of purposeful ambiguity, states that Israel has ‘the bomb’ in response to a question about the nuclear ambitions of Iran. Next, President Bush signs a civilian nuclear deal with India, allowing US companies to sell nuclear technology in exchange for inspectors at fourteen facilities on the sub-continent. Small problem: India has twenty-two nuclear facilities: the other eight, the military ones, remain off-limits.
India and Pakistan, another treaty holdout, argue that the NNPT is ethically baseless, drawing an arbitrary line between the ‘legal’ nuclear powers (i.e. the five nations that held weapons before 1968) and all the nations that followed. That may be a sound argument, but only the most zealous nationalist believes the presence of nuclear weapons around Kashmir, in the Middle East, or in the hands of North Korea secures the preservation of mankind.
