Nuclear Weapons

I don't care where you are on the political spectrum, listen up. Whoever "they" are, they do not hate us for our freedom. They do not hate us for our fast food, our rock and roll music, or our apple pie. They hate us because of our insipid yet casual hegemonic behavior with regard to everyone else.

This week, The Democratic People's Republic of North Korea conducted an underground test of a nuclear weapon which may have yielded up to 20 kilotons -- the rough equivalent of the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II.

Naturally, this action has been almost unanimously condemned by the international community with practically identical rhetoric. It's the same old jeopardizing-peace-and-stability routine. I won't bore you with the details, because I'm sure you've heard it all before.

In fact, we've been going through this for years now with North Korea and others and I'd just like to stop for a moment and ask why. Why bother? I don't actually think North Korea is going to try to nuke the White House or even deploy their weapons against their neighbors. They don't want to use them, they just want to sit at the big kid's table.

Would that be so bad? The way I see it, North Korea could use the geopolitical equivalent of a hug right now. It was the Cold War, people. They bet on the wrong horse and now they're scared and alone in a world full of enemies. Of course they want nuclear weapons, because the way they see it, that's their only path to legitimacy.

Well, now they have them. We could continue to pretend we can force them to unlearn their creation, or we can face reality and focus on how to keep them in their silos. What's the best way to keep them in their silos? Stop antagonizing North Korea.

Am I saying we should sanction the proliferation of nuclear weapons? Fuck no. I'm just trying to point out that our skewed perception of the issue is going to preclude reaching any kind of resolution everyone can live with, and our sanctimonious attitude is only going to foster more resentment.

We use terms like "rogue state," and assign them to the Axis of Evil. We treat them like comic book villains because that's a lot easier than trying to understand where they're coming from, or -- even worse -- acknowledging our own role in the situation.

After all, they're only playing the game we created.

When we invented the atom bomb, we could not drop those motherfuckers fast enough. Now here we are, the only country ever to use nuclear weapons on another and we're on top of the world -- we were at least. We tell ourselves it's because we're somehow better, that we're capable and responsible enough to have them. What they see in places like North Korea and Iran is rather different.

Whoever has the bombs makes the rules.

They see a juvenile club, complete with decoder rings and "No Girls Allowed" sign. They watch us invade sovereign states without provocation while insisting they are the dangerous ones. They see us sign nonproliferation treaties and then turn a blind eye when our friends want to break the rules.

This is the primary reason we will never be free of terrorist cells, violent religious zealots, and dick-waving contests with other countries.

Just to be clear, I think governance on the country/state level in general is madness, I don't care if its a benevolent democracy or an iron-fisted authoritarian situation. Far be it for me to try and tell you how all how to talk between your crazy selves. Where I come from, however, if you patronize and belittle everyone around you, you're not allowed to act surprised when they resent you for it.