What is amazing is that only four other countries have abandoned the NPT: Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and India (only the latter three have been sanctioned by the US). But that situation cannot hold forever, especially since part of Article VI calls for general disarmament, a pledge that has been honored in the breach. The US currently has the largest defense budget in its history and spends about 47 percent of what the entire rest of the world spends on their militaries.
While the US doesn't seem able to win wars with that huge military -- Afghanistan and Iraq were disasters -- it can inflict a stunning amount of damage that few countries are willing to absorb. Even when Washington doesn't resort to its military, its sanctions can decimate a country's economy and impoverish its citizens. North Korea and Iran are cases in point.
If the US were willing to cover up the 1979 Israeli test, while sanctioning other countries that acquire nuclear weapons, why would anyone think that this is nothing more than hypocrisy on the subject of proliferation? And if the NPT is simply a device to ensure that other countries cannot defend themselves from other nations' conventional and/or nuclear forces, why would anyone sign on or stay in the Treaty?
Turkish President Erdogan may be bluffing. He loves bombast and effectively uses it to keep his foes off balance. The threat may be a strategy for getting the US to back off on its support for Israel and Greece in their joint efforts to develop energy sources in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
But Turkey also has security concerns. In his speech, Erdogan pointed out "There is Israel just beside us. Do they have [nuclear weapons]? They do." He went on to say that if Turkey did not response to Israeli "bullying," in the region, "We will face the prospect of losing our strategic superiority in the region."
Iran may be lying -- although there is no evidence that Teheran is making a serious run at producing a nuclear weapon -- but if they are, they in good company with the Americans and the Israelis.
Sooner or later someone is going to set off one of those nukes. The likeliest candidates are India and Pakistan, although use by the US and China in the South China Sea is not out of the question. Neither is a dust-up between NATO and Russia in the Baltic.
It is easy to blame the current resident of the White House for world tensions, except that the major nuclear powers have been ignoring their commitments on nuclear weapons and disarmament for over 50 years.
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