Here’s Why We Must Think Twice Before Using Our Nuclear Weapons And Rather Opt For Peace!

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“Nuclear weapons offer us nothing but a balance of terror, and a balance of terror is still terror”, said American scientist George Wald. Nuclear weapons have the potential to both help and harm. They can be beneficial on one side and detrimental on the other. There is no denying that as time has gone on, cross-border conflicts have escalated intensifying a country’s need to possess nuclear weapons.

Out of 195 countries on Earth, only 9 nations (USA, Russia, UK, France, China, North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel) boast nuclear power. Thus far, the only instance of a nuclear attack took place in 1945 when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In her TED Talk that the world does not need more nuclear weapons, Erika Gregory said that highly-enriched uranium about the size of latte is enough to kill 100,000 people and make that place uninhabitable for decades!

Source: Euronews

It is worth a mention that a working nuclear bomb requires as little as 16 kilograms of uranium. The loss of lives cannot be justified on any ground. However, I feel that the use of nuclear weapons can only be justified in certain circumstances when no alternate option is available.

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If there is a major threat of invasion or a long-scale war, a country can resort to its nuclear weapons. Cross-border tensions between nuclear countries Pakistan and India dramatically strengthen the chances of a nuclear attack. Keeping in mind the destruction of nuclear weapons cause, I believe that rivals must negotiate and hold discussions to find a peaceful solution. On the other hand, North Korea (about one-eightieth of the size of the United States) is also enhancing its nuclear arsenal for its voice to be heard on the global stage.

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Source: The National Interest

According to theglobalobservatory.org, only four countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and South Africa) have voluntarily denuclearized themselves. The United States has also consistently demanded North Korea to denuclearize itself. However, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has made it crystal clear that they won’t give up nuclear weaponry unless the U.S. completely eradicates their interference at Korean borders.

It is extremely fortunate that the world has not witnessed another nuclear attack since that infamous Hiroshima-Nagasaki incident in 1945 which probably indicates that we have learned a lesson. It is not only luck but the untiring worldwide efforts which have shunned another nuclear war.

Many organizations like International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) have been set up to prevent nuclear attacks and educate nations about the destruction these nuclear weapons bring. In the end, we can only hope that the world does not witness another nuclear attack.

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