Minimalist nuclear weapons powers

[patslatt]

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How come then that it is these very same Liberal Democracies which are among the greatest exporters of military technologies in the world.

Generally,military spending is very unpopular with voters,witness the lack of preparation of the democracies against Hitler's obvious threat. To stay at the forefront of military tech,the lesser powers like France and the UK are obliged to export in order to achieve economies of scale in jet aircraft,missilies, even ultra secure battlefield communications systems, in which France is a leader.

[patslatt]

Why has the Iranian government refused offers of massive technical help from the US,the EU,China and Russia for building civilian nuclear reactors,in exchange for abandoning uranium enrichment? THe most likely conclusion is that Iran's leaders want to build nuclear weapons or maintain the threat that they would do so.

Maybe theyre worried about energy security .Seems everyone is these days .

They would have far better nuclear power systems by accepting the technical help offered. Unless the Iranian leadership accepts this help,it will be crystal clear to all,including even the most anti-American observers, that Iran intends to develop clandestine nuclear weapons. This clarity about Iran's intentions to violate ot the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would pave the way for an American invasion.

If the American government,war weary from Iraq,were fazed by the potential losses of life and vast disruption to the global economy from interruptions to Middle East oil,it may consider threatening the use of tactical nuclear weapons against suspected Iranian nuclear sites. The precedent for this is President Eisenhower's threat conveyed through diplomatic channels to use nukes in the Korean War which looked like continuing indefinitely after the Chinese army had completed a vast network of concrete underground bunkers.

However,if such a threat received publicity,it would cause an uproar throughout the Muslim world and encourage many mid-sized powers to develop nuclear weapons. A veiled threat would be better than a direct threat. If the Iranians ignored the threat, an American invasion would be preferable to creating another horrific precedent beside Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the use of nukes.