You Cannot Unmake The Soup

The idea that we can go back to a world where nuclear fission and/or nuclear fusion do not exist is not just ridiculous; it is sublime! It is no more possible to unlearn the secrets of nuclear reactions than it is to mix ingredients together to prepare soup and then change your mind and separate all of the ingredients back into their component parts.

In short, you can’t unmake the soup, and you certainly cannot unlearn the science that we used to create and develop nuclear reactions.

Much like the well-used statement, “If you ban guns, the only people who will have guns are the criminals,” we can now correctly state, “If you ban nuclear weapons, the only people who will have nuclear weapons are the rogues who ignore the rules.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of criminals and rogues out there in the world.

You might consider our current bad guys, Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez, Kim Il Jong, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, and a number of others, incapable of any threat to us in the nuclear arena. They don’t have the delivery systems, or so it seems, to place a nuke on our soil.

That may or may not be true, based on recent development and testing of intermediate-range missiles in both North Korea and Iran, but it isn’t really necessary to have intercontinental missiles in order to attack us. There are a number of scenarios that posit a nuclear attack without any sophisticated delivery at all.

We are at risk regardless of any diplomatic agreements to destroy and quit making nuclear weapons. If the technology is there—and it cannot be unlearned—then there will always be evil people who will use it to further their ends. They are not necessarily associated with any government, and are unanswerable for breaking any “treaty” with the rest of the world.

If President Obama gets his wish and is able to negotiate with the other nuclear powers to completely ban nuclear weapons—an impossibility from the get-go—I will give us about ten years maximum until we will have that dreaded nuclear war that we have deterred for over sixty years. It might signal the end of civilization as we know it.

Thank you, Mr. President. You are a true idealist, and I wanted to stop short of saying that idealists are fools, but then... I cannot unmake the soup either. So there, I’ve gone and made it official. I consider you a fool as well. And I truly hate to have to think that about our president, the most powerful man in the world. The seat of power is no place for a fool to sit.