In Reply: Nuclear weapons are
instruments of genocide. Their possession is a crime against humanity.
No reason of state can ever justify their use, which would inflict
indiscriminate mass murder, injure generations yet unborn, and despoil
an already degraded environment. We have defeated Hitler, yet have
succumbed to his vicious philosophy. In going nuclear, India and
Pakistan have extended the reach of barbarism.
Dr Fouts is completely on target. The nidus of the pathology is among
the permanent members of the UN Security Council and especially in
Washington, DC, which has initiated and been a key player in shaping
the atomic age. The concept of nonproliferation was flawed from the
outset. The superpowers retained the right to keep testing and
modernizing weapons notwithstanding their huge arsenals and their
qualitative and quantitative dominance. At the same time, the
nonweapons states were expected permanently to forswear any intent of
acquiring nuclear military capabilities. Such a double standard could
not be permanently enforced. The options were 2: either eradicate the
malignant virus, nuclearism, or witness its spread. The events in South
Asia confirm the bankruptcy of nuclear apartheid policies.