Why are WE allowed to have weapons of mass destruction?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

Very simple question. I've asked it of all different types of people, both in real life and on the net.

The only real answer I have ever gotten is "because we can."

Everytime I hear of my country griping that another country has WMDs or nuclear weapons, I wonder at the irony of it all. In many cases, we are the world's largest supplier of WMDs. Aren't we? And the world's largest holder of such?

So. I'll ask it here, too. What better place. Why are WE allowed to have weapons of mass destruction? I know the easy answer is who's gonna tell us we can't, but how did this come about?

And I am assuming it's ok with us that our allies have WMDs, too? The UK? Israel? Who else?

[MrSlayer]

1. We need them to keep everyone in line.

[FDRrocks]

11. Thats rather Convenient....

b/c we don't start more wars than anybody else, or anything.

[malatesta1137]

2. because if we allow others

we will cease to be the most powerful nation.

but remember, every Empire sooner or later collapses.

[FDRrocks]

12. It's all about the economy

I believe China will surpass America, within my lifetime. I believe it will be due to the cheap labor ideals of the large American capailists.

[not systems]

3. Because we are special.

Didn't you get the memo rules, laws and international treaties are intended for others not us.

We are a shining city on a hill where people are wise and just.

We bring freedom and democracy to the world as surly as the sun rises.

We are special.

Some of our little buddies are special also.

Everyone else better recognize because Uncle Sam carries a special big stick
for teaching about democracy and freedom.

You know spare the rod and spoil the child.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

10. I know you are right

but it makes my heart heavy everytime I think about it.

[LibertyorDeath]

4. We have 5% of the worlds population but use 70% of its resources

This is obviously not sustainable in the long run but in the short term
"WE" need wmd to intimidate and assist when we decide to kill and plunder other nations for their resources. The pace will start to accelerate right about.......now.

[LearnedHand]

5. Right.

Who's gonna take them from us? We're too good at playing king of the hill with them.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. We invented most of them...

but, ummm.... we'd never use them or let anyone else use them. And we'd never sell them to anyone, even our friends. Even nice guys fighting those evil Iranians.

Never. Nope. Not at all.

Just have them in case those nasty Russkies feel like lobbing some our way.

Yeah, that's the ticket. We have them for deterrence.

That's all. Just deterrence. To make sure nobody else uses them.

[belle]

7. Because WE are the ones who do the allowing around here. QED.

also see: every NRA argument that ever was.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. LOL

I haven't seen QED since my school days.

Is that old joke still around? "Quite Easily Done"

I think you are right belle. Because we do the allowing around here.

How can we claim a stance of moral superiority then?

[OneBlueSky]

8. because we have hearts of gold and nothing but good intentions . . .

and if you buy that, there's this bridge in Brooklyn you may want to look at . . .

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

14. Gotcha.

Because WE can be trusted and those who we say cannot be trusted, cannot.

Got it. Now I can be a good little American and say my pledge of allegiance without thinking too much!

:crazy:

[jpgray]

13. A modern (and multiracial) version of the 'white man's burden'

Only we civilized peoples can responsibly maintain WMD--the others cannot handle them and must be managed. :crazy:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. Hmmmmm

Good answer. I think you hit to the heart of it, actually. It's the old "we are trustworthy, they are not" thing.

Now that being said, little side question for everyone here......let's call it the "American Burden" to play off the "white man's burden" theme.......does the "American Burden" play into the US needing to convey an image of wholesomeness and righteousness? How much does that play into our national identity?

I am an insomniac!

[jpgray]

17. Just a possible interpretation

Another way of describing it would be to say the UN Security Council tolerates the premise of WMD in both countries its members value, and countries that cannot be successfully stopped from obtaining WMD. This is why Arab states do not balance Israel's nukes with their own, whereas India / Pakistan is another story. The UN wasn't thrilled with the latter, but they couldn't do much about it. Iran we can conceivably bully out of obtaining the weapons, so we will.

[Llewlladdwr]

16. So, who exactly....

would you rather see with WMDs? Iran? Mexico? Myanmar?

Frankly, if anyone has to have 'em, I prefer it be us. And I see no way to put this genie back in the bottle.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

19. Just a question.

Who would I rather see with them? That's easy, no one.

I just thought I'd ask the question since it seems the US gets up in arms a lot about who has WMDs.

[Llewlladdwr]

22. Of course.

I wish wars were fought with nerf bats and water balloons. But since they aren't I'd prefer to have the most lethal stuff under our control. Guess I'm just selfish that way.

[Hippo_Tron]

18. Well I think we HAD a right to them...

But that was before we waged an illegal war on Iraq. Gee isn't that why we took Saadam's weapons away? Because he waged an illegal war in Quwait. Hrmmmm.

[strategery blunder]

20. Simple, honest answer: Americans are foreign policy hypocrites.

There.

[anarchy1999]

21. All I can think of is, "Good Question"!

What is to stop the rest of the "Super Powers" from rising up against us the US as a rogue nation and a threat to the world? I can't find anything... We've exported all our weapons technology to China and Israel, we have the world's largest debt, just tell me what is to stop the downward spiral we are in?

If we the citizens of this country do not rise up and stop the path we are on, we will have nothing left. Time is short.


Hallelujah! In Fallujah

Inexcusable American genocide slaughters defenseless Iraqis
President who talks to God wishes dead innocents a Happy Easter
By John Kaminski
[email protected]
4-11-4


Happy Easter, 2004, everybody! Praise the Lord! And as you sit in your proper pew this Sunday morning, blubbering out your favorite version of 'He is risen,' contemplate this.

Americans, just like the Israelis, are now known for killing innocent people as they worship their God in church. Raise your eyes to the heavens you prize so highly. And imagine an American B-52 dropping a 500-pound bomb right on your head, splattering you and your beloved family all over your sacred altar. Your finely dressed friends, your fire-breathing pastor, all those beautiful children in their frilly Easter finery, reduced to bloody bits of still-twitching protoplasm dripping from the flaming pages of the Book of Revelation.

See your murmurs of worship becomes screams of pain. Praise the Lord. Praise Yahweh. He said that's how it should be done. Right in the pages of the Old Testament. And that's how America is doing it today, this very day, Easter Sunday, in Iraq.

Imagine that you're not killed instantly, but your arms have been blown off. Imagine that your daughter's head has been blown off and her body reduced to spasming jelly. You can see her head, eyes wide but sightless, a few feet away. That's how it is today ... in Fallujah, where flies feast on bodies littering the streets.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT


Pray for the soul - that as an American - you have definitely lost.
http://www.rense.com/general51/hal.htm

[Moderator]

32. anarchy1999

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[Hekate]

23. "When I walk thru the Valley of Death I shall fear no evil...

...because I am the meanest sonovabitch in the Valley."

That was on a poster about 30 years ago, but it explains a lot about a certain mindset, like "Bring it on." Because they can. Because they believe in Empire with a capital E, and because they have an intellectual framework (PNAC) that is a thin veneer over the fact that they are thugs and bullies at heart. Because they can get away with it.

I find myself singing bits of Dylan's song "Masters of War" these days because it is just so true it could have been written last week.

They have got to go, but you know that's just us talking here. We have our millions of friends who we think of as the true patriots. But the Bushites have a lot of admirers of their tough-guy attitude, and it will take an awful lot of misery to change that. In our country we do have Brown Shirt material, and we have had our Burning Reichstag already.

So why do WE get to have WMDs? Because we are the meanest sonovabitch in the Valley. For now. What the Faux Cowboy doesn't understand is that the Fastest Gun in the West always has younger gunslingers calling him out.

Hekate

[mmonk]

24. As I answered another question about illegal combatants,

we're a double standard kind of people. That's why we have and make more WMD's.

[patricia92243]

25. I was explaining to my sister why the rest of the world is afraid of us.

We not only have nuclear weapons, we are the only ones on the planet to ever use them against amother country.

It was like she had never thought of this.

[Muddleoftheroad]

27. We also invented them

So it makes sense that we would be the only ones to use them. Give it time, I'm sure others will catch up in that regard.

In the meantime, because nukes are so dangerous ALL the countries with nukes have a big club and every time another member joins, the world gets that much more dangerous.

[LagaLover]

26. Who else?

Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Taiwan, and probably a few others, have WMD as well as the countries you named.

[baldguy]

28. Because we had them first.

And we don't want somebody else to be able to scare the bejesus out of us as much as we've scared everone else.

[LagaLover]

29. We didn't have them first...

I believe the German's the French and the British all had chemical weapons before we did...could be wrong on that!

[Muddleoftheroad]

30. Pretty sure folks mean only one type of WMD -- nukes

[LagaLover]

31. Oh!

As you know, WMD includes bio and chem weapons as well as nukes, so I figured this post included them as well. Sorry! Goes to show why clarity is important. Thanks for the help!

[ret5hd]

33. why would you think that?

practicaly every reference made by the mass media and the gov't over the past year or so has included sarin, anthrax, nukes, botulism, etc. hell, you'd have thought "they" must have had the most gigantic-est futuristic secret labs ever designed, with every technology known to man (and some known only to "them"). And also mobile labs. And also cave labs. And also underground labs. The only thing missing from their descriptions was a super-duper-super-secret space lab.

[Muddleoftheroad]

34. That's the way I read the thread

[ret5hd]

35. snip from the top post:

Everytime I hear of my country griping that another country has WMDs or nuclear weapons,...

pretty obvious to me.

[TexasMexican]

36. We didnt sign away our rights to own them in some international treaty...

like most other nations have.