Since the beginning of time, there have always been conflicts, crisis and wars. This implies that, there have always been insecurity and threats to peaceful living. History established that, powerful nations have always championed cause of oppression and aggression against the less powerful nations, and this manifests in form of colonialism, expansionism, slavery and so on.
Before the emergence of modern nations, wars and conflicts are limited in effect; limited in the sense that, the effect of conflicts are mostly restricted to the parties involved. Though, there are examples of non-actors in conflict situations that were sometimes affected, but the examples are minimal until U.S emerged as the world super power.
According to research, United State of America today poses more threat to world peace than any other threat. History and available evidences show that, for every war or armed conflict in any part of the world, be it in Africa, Middle East, Asia, Europe or other parts of the world, the history of escalation and sustenance of such conflict can be traced back to the activities of the U.S, directly or indirectly. Evidence also shows that, The U.S pioneered the greatest threat to insecurity in the world.
Arm proliferation which may be defined as spreading of small arms, which are weapons designed for use by individuals like pistols, assault rifles, sub machine guns and light machine gun could also be light weapons, which can be deployed and used by group of two or more people. They include grenade launcher, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, as well as recoilless rifles, even missile launcher and mortar less than 100mm, or atomic bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, be it nuclear, biological or chemical, among the state and non-state actors, particularly the criminal mass of people and rogue states. (Traveston and Bennett 1997.). The manufacturing and spread of such weapons are mostly from the super-power nations which US is the most powerful and the availability of such weapons in the hand of criminally minded groups is said to be the major threat to world peace. Again, evidences show that, such weapons are easily bought in U.S to be transported outside the region.
The historic origin of arm proliferation in the modern world can be traced to 1939, when Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the then U.S president, Mr. Roosevelt, informing the president on the need to carry out a project on the U.S atomic bomb and its possibilities. This letter gave birth to the American Manhattan Project in September 1942. But prior to the launching of that project, a soviet scientist, Georgi n. Flerov wrote the soviet state defence committee in June 1942 on the need to produce a uranium bomb. This period marked the beginning of arms race in modern history. Thus, according to C.M Robert:
On December 2, 1942, the first chain reaction was achieved at the University of Chicago. Studies have it that, the incident of World War II has had some devastating consequences on mankind as well as global system. The world has been greeted with proliferation of variety of assaulted weapons and agents of mass destruction, where a mutual difference has taken the form of mutual Assured destruction (MAD). The war has marked a new phase in the history of human tragedy.
‘’In 1945 for example, America infested two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with pestilence through the use of atomic bombs, which killed tens of thousands of people, as many became deformed. Today, after 67years of the U.S bombardment of these two cities, the local people as well as ecosystem still suffers the effects of devastating damage caused by those military actions.’
‘’During the Potsdam conference (July 24,1945),Josef Stalin of old Soviet Union was informed by the U.S president, Truman on the intention of the U.S to attack Japan,unless Japan surrender, a very destructive bomb that had been developed by the U.S. This bomb would have much devastating and catastrophic effects on human and materials resources. The bomb was atomic bomb.’’ (NOUN INR212)
It was after the U.S show of power and oppressive display chemical weapons that prompted the USSR to follow suit and engage in massive arm manufacturing which now poses a great danger to the world.
‘’The comparable soviet achievement came on December 24, 1946. The Soviet Union did not produce sufficient plutonium for a nuclear bomb best until 1949. More than four years after the U.S test at Alamagordo, New Mexico (Roberts, 1974.)’’
‘’Studies also have it that, After the innovation of the U.S in the development of atomic bomb, the government of soviet union reacted swiftly by calling on its scientists and engineers to defend their homeland by building atomic bomb in no time. The reaction of the USSR government was to check the U.S monopoly of atomic energy or military supremacy, particularly when there was already a cold war existing between the west and east divides. Again, after Soviet Union invention of atomic bomb, a series of caution were made between the U.S and USSR because of their equal power relations to mutual destruction.’’
‘’Five months after the first soviet nuclear test, the U.S president, Mr Truman announced the intension of the U.S to develop a hydrogen bomb, a quantum jump in explosive power with the aim of maintaining arms superiority. By November 1, 1952, H-bomb (Hydrogen Bomb) was experimentally achieved in the U.S after the august 12 soviet invention. Initially, these weapons were conceived for delivery by bomber aircraft, A- bombs (atomic bombs),but the vastly greater explosive power of the H-bomb made missile delivery practical in spite of the considerably inaccuracy in the guidance systems in early model of ICBMs.’’(NOUN INR212) This period attracted affection for missile artistry by the then two super powers. (The U.S and USSR) and by 1955, the two super powers had achieved deliverable H-bomb capabilities, but striving vigorously to achieve Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capabilities.
U.S later launched its first nuclear powered submarine and development of huge B-52 bombers. On 26 of august, 1957, the soviet government announced the first test of an ICBM and six weeks later, she also announced the Sputnik project. Other ballistic missiles already developed were intermediate and medium range ballistic missile (IRBMs and MRBMs). The two super powers later developed (ABM) Anti Ballistic Missile which the soviet developed to provide limited defence against the U.S Minuteman Missiles. The U.S developed ABM system before the Soviet Union. The U.S first began with Nike-Zeus and then developed the then more advanced Nike X. also in the 1960’s, the U.S developed MRV (Multiple Warhead Re-entry Vehicle) carrying a cluster of war heads for a buckshot effect. The U.S also considered in quick succession, the building on the independently guided Multiple Warhead (MIRV). In Texas meeting, the U.S also considered the development of Poseidon, a new MIRV missile for Polaris submarine. (NOUN INR212).
In order to further check the American supremacy in strategic military build-up, the soviet built new ICBMs,particularly the massive SS-9s as well as many nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines often known as Yankee Class (Y Class),which could match the U.S` Polaris submarines. The Soviet also developed surface to air missile (SAM). China and some other countries have joined the world nuclear powers, and there is an on-going debate on the development of nuclear energy by Iran, which most western nations believe that it would spell a bad omen to the majority of the world population, if the U.S coined member of Axis of Evil, Iran develops it. (NOUN INR212).
Today, every country wants a chemical weapon in fear of being attacked by the US. It is worth noting that, as much as the U.S enjoy free flow of arm production, sales and delivery to ally nations which has been observed as a major threat to world peace, it never seized in such pursuit, but instead wanting to deny other nations of the privilege of enjoying such liberty by coining a relatively unknown name (member of Axis of Evil) to denigrate some nations.
One of the reasons given by the U.S is that, these countries may supply some of the terrorist organizations in the world to carry out their nihilist and destructive operations against their target state
and non-state actors.
What many observers of the global system are concerned about is, when did the U.S became the watch dog of the world to determine who does what? At present, U.S is the producer of drones and major producer of weapons of mass destruction despite the ban on such production by the U.N. With the constant terrorist attacks across the world, one begins to wonder where these terrorists’ organizations get their weapons from. There is a ban on the development of some weapons which may be categorized as weapon of mass destruction by the world body, united nation, but notwithstanding, U.S and some other super powers enjoy the production of these weapons against the law of the U.N without caution.
It is safe to conclude that, the super supers cannot continue to enjoy the liberty of manufacturing or keeping their already manufactured chemical weapons while denying other nations from doing same. If one country shouldn’t have a chemical weapon, no country should.
Written By Abdulrazaq O Hamzat
discus4now@gmail.com
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