Should the West dismantle their nuclear weapons?

Question

Pros;

Show of faith
Setting an example
Moral highground??

Cons:

Weakened defence (are they truly defensive?)
Loss of jobs in the industry

I am not in favour of dismantling nuclear weapons but it is worth looking at it from our "enemy's" point of view: we appear to be the ones with the knife and pointing it at him, what is he to do?

Answer 1

The US has been doing so, and it seems reasonable, since they could be built much more quickly than they can be disposed of, and the use of the things is much less likely these days. (Precision-guided conventional weapons can do many jobs that could only be done with nukes in the past.)

Answer 2

Good question and very difficult to give an answer acceptable to all.
We should not dismantle our nuclear weapons just yet. We are at a period in history where we have many enemies. We have Syria and Iran who have unstable leaders. We have Russia and China both unknown quantities. We do need to defend ourselves and children if need be. I am stating the obvious but if we have the weapons then our enemies do not know whether we will use them or not. So that is the deterrant.
We have Iran's leader ranting about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth -an expression of pure hatred. I don't really think all the people of Iran have the same views. But with people like that in positions of great power with access to great wealth to purchase Hi-tech weaponry we have to have the best type of defence.

Answer 3

Being that the U.S.A. is the last true superpower and has to be able to defend the country and our trusted allies against any would be advesasries who despise our way of life and the freedoms that americans enjoy I say that we can never dismantle our nuclear weapons.With more and more countries like iran,north korea and other developing nuclear technologies and terroist groups like the taliban who have been quoted as saying "their getting a nuclear weapon is a religious requirement" Plus all over the now broken up ex-soviet union there are still underground silos with fully active nuclear weapons and delivery systems that most of the prople that ran them are now unemployed or living in abject poverty and should some terroist have enough money to bribe one of those people they would have a weapon.Think about our nuclear weapons as the ultimate deterent for one of those nutcase countries from using any they may have against america for if a country like iran or north korea decides one day that they no longer want to exsist and launch a nuclear weapon at the U.S.A. we are able detect it before it left their airspace and hopefully be able to shoot it out of the sky before it gets anywhere near us.And then we would respond with such a counter strike that would blow that country right off the face of the earth.Allway remember that at the most these countries have a few nuclear weapons where as we have billons of them either sitting in underground silos or in submarines on underwater patrol around the clock just waiting for the word to fire them.and those other countries have no idea where they are but we know where theirs are.

Answer 4

They can't ever be used.

It's agreed under membership of the NPT and UN that nukes are for self defence and cannot be used on a nation that doesn't have them.

Nukes are kept under a policy that I think is called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

If China launched a nuke to the USA, whilst it's on the way, America send nukes back. China would know this, so would send nukes all over America as the response would be swift & final.

Great defence - everyone in China and America dies and the rest of us are contaminated by the fall-out!!

It makes me very worried!

Answer 5

You're gonna have to give me much better reasons to dismantle than those to convince me that it is a good idea. Do you live in a box? Has history not taught you what human nature is like when it comes to nationalism? Iran or Korea aren't going to lay down their arms because we decide to. They would take full advantage of our defenseless country as will some of our closet enemies disguised as our NATO allies.

Answer 6

Every country that possess Nuclear Missiles should dismantle them...no country should have them because the radiation spreads like wildfire. Do not believe that the missiles are safe because they are underground in silos. Radiation is spreading throughout the world and that is one of the main reasons people get cancer.

Answer 7

David, Hi,
I agree to a large extent.
If the "West" sets an example by diminishing or removing nukes, then others would have to follow suite.
Ok, the "defence" industry would suffer, but with all that skill & experience, re-deployment in other areas should not be a problem.
Remove aggression, and you remove the threats.
Peace & Harmony, please, to all.
Bob

Answer 8

I think we have misused the intelligence we have about nuclear weapons... The weapons part of it is all wrong....nuclear energy is an enormous asset, the power of the 'weopon' should be harnessed as when it is we will be able to use as the power to travel across the heavens and discover New Worlds...this one won't be here forever....not the way we abuse it.

Answer 9

No.

If literally every country in the world dismantled their nuclear weapons and agreed to never produce them again, it's still extremely unlikely that everyone will abide by the rules set.

The idea is that if we have them and they have them, we'll not shoot at each other since the other could shoot back.

Answer 10

what the hell is moral highground?

The USA has been the only one to actually use their nuclear weapons in Japan. Everyone should get rid off them