CounterPunch's
Scorching New Book on a Decade of War
Order Now / Available in April
Today's
Stories
March 29, 2004
Kathy Kelly
Crossing Lines
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A
Journey to Rafah
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
March
29, 2004
The Non-Proliferation Bargain
Nuclear
Disarmament is the Key to Success
By DAVID KRIEGER
The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into
force in 1970, is the centerpiece of international efforts to
control the spread of nuclear weapons. Perhaps the treaty was
given the wrong name when it was created because the treaty is
about nuclear disarmament as well as non-proliferation. At the
heart of the treaty is a deal between those states that possess
nuclear weapons and those that do not. The deal, simply put,
is that the nuclear weapons states agree to the complete disarmament
of their nuclear arsenals, while the non-nuclear weapon states
agree not to acquire nuclear weapons. This agreement, or bargain,
between the parties to the treaty, setting forth the course of
action each will pursue with regard to nuclear weapons, is the
most important aspect of the treaty. It is, however, the least
understood, particularly by American citizens.
The sad fact is that from the inception
of the treaty the nuclear weapon states have shown scant inclination
to fulfill their part of the bargain. As recently as the year
2000, the nuclear weapon states agreed to 13 practical steps
to achieve nuclear disarmament. Their record is an almost perfect
failure, not because they tried and failed but because they lacked
the political will to even seriously try. Without a serious effort
by the nuclear weapon states to achieve nuclear disarmament,
the treaty appears to enshrine double standards that give special
privileges to the nuclear weapon states. In fact, it is not the
treaty that promotes double standards, but the nuclear weapon
states themselves.
A year ago the United States initiated
a preventive war against Iraq based on the claim that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction or programs to create them, including
nuclear weapons programs. Setting aside the now doubtful veracity
of the claims, the US-led war underlines the double standards
in the non-proliferation regime. By contrast, the US remained
silent about the proliferation activities of its ally in the
"war on terror," Pakistan. When it was revealed that
Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan was selling nuclear secrets to
Iran, North Korea and Libya, and was pardoned by the Pakistani
government after he admitted these serious transgressions, the
US had little to say. Similarly, the US has never publicly raised
the issue of the known proliferation of nuclear weapons to Israel.
All of this points to double standards that are inconsistent
with the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and with effective
attempts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
In a February 2004 speech at the National
Defense University, George Bush addressed the threat of nuclear
proliferation. "The greatest threat before humanity today,"
he said, "is the possibility of secret and sudden attack
with chemical or biological or radiological or nuclear weapons."
Among the seven proposals put forward by Mr. Bush was one calling
for the 40 nations of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to "refuse
to sell enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technologies
to any state that does not already possess full-scale, functioning
enrichment and reprocessing plants." That this proposal
met with a round of applause suggests how little his audience,
and Americans in general, are attuned to issues of double standards.
We commend Mr. Bush for calling on all
countries "to strengthen the laws and international controls
that govern proliferation," including criminalizing proliferation.
Mr. Bush is right in seeking to stop proliferation of nuclear
weapons. He is wrong in thinking that it can be done based on
an international system of double standards that favor some nations
over others. Nuclear weapons anywhere are a threat to people
everywhere. As Mohamed Elbaradei, the Director of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, warned in a speech on the day following
Mr. Bush's speech, "If the world does not change course,
we risk self-destruction."
Elbaradei called for tightening and universalizing
controls over the export of nuclear materials, empowering the
international inspectors, preventing withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, bringing sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle under
international control, initiating long overdue negotiations on
a fissile material cut-off treaty and having the nuclear weapon
states move forward on nuclear disarmament. Elbaradei called
nuclear disarmament a "fundamental part of the nonproliferation
bargain."
"We must abandon the unworkable
notion," Elbaradei said, "that it is morally reprehensible
for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet
morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security, and
indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans
for their use." Certainly he must have had in mind programs,
such as "mini-nukes" and "bunker-busting"
nuclear weapons being pursued by the US administration, when
he made this statement.
Moving Forward
ElBaradei's proposals are useful and
necessary, as are those of Mr. Bush that do not enshrine double
standards, but they are not sufficient to stop nuclear proliferation.
A more comprehensive and urgent program is needed to achieve
this critical goal because the consequences of failure are so
drastic. The type of serious program that must be implemented
if we are to prevent further nuclear proliferation with all its
attendant threats is set forth below.
1. Universal application of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
The treaty cannot be effective unless
it is applicable to all states in the world without exception.
Currently, India, Pakistan and Israel are not parties to the
treaty and possess nuclear weapons. North Korea has withdrawn
from the treaty and claims to possess nuclear weapons. These
states must be brought into the treaty, and made accountable
for controlling their nuclear weapons and materials under international
safeguards. For the treaty to succeed these states, along with
the other nuclear weapons states, must also become subject to
transparent and verifiable nuclear disarmament.
2. Set a timetable and clear objectives
in achieving nuclear disarmament.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty has been
in effect for more than three decades without substantial progress
on the nuclear disarmament provisions of the treaty's bargain.
The only way to assure that the nuclear weapons states achieve
their obligations in a timely way is to set a strict timetable
for achieving significant markers on the road to complete nuclear
disarmament.
3. Establish a global inventory of
nuclear weapons and materials.
In order to control nuclear weapons and
materials, it is necessary to ascertain accurately what exists.
All states without exception must be subject to reporting requirements
and international inspections in creating this inventory.
4. Place all nuclear weapons and materials
under international safeguards. Currently there are double standards
in which the civilian and nuclear weapons programs of the nuclear
weapons states are not subject to IAEA inspections and safeguarding.
These double standards must end and all nuclear materials and
weapons in all countries must be accounted for and placed under
international safeguards.
5. Cease all efforts to "improve"
nuclear capabilities.
Currently the US and other nuclear weapon
states are seeking to develop new and more usable nuclear weapons.
This is another example of double standards under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty that must be ended.
6. Criminalize both horizontal and
vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons.
All efforts to accomplish nuclear proliferation,
whether by transfer of weapons or materials or by improving and
expanding existing nuclear arsenals, should be criminalized and
treated as criminal violations of international law.
7. Provide security assurances to non-nuclear
weapon states.
An essential part of the bargain for
non-nuclear weapon states forgoing their nuclear option is that
they will not be subject to nuclear attack by the existing nuclear
weapon states. These assurances must be reaffirmed in unequivocal
terms.
8. Commit to a No First Use Policy.
All existing nuclear weapon states should
commit to not being first to use nuclear weapons against other
nuclear weapon states and to bringing their nuclear policies
into line with this commitment.
9. Maintain the current moratorium
on nuclear testing.
All states should maintain the current
nuclear testing moratorium and ratify the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty if they have not already done so. The US can take
the lead by ceasing preparations for resumption of nuclear testing
within a shorter timeframe and by closing its Nevada Test Site.
10. Redirect funding from developing
and maintaining nuclear weapons to dismantling them and safeguarding
nuclear materials.
Funding currently directed to maintaining
and improving nuclear arsenals should be redirected to the goal
of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials.
International efforts to inspect and safeguard nuclear materials
and weapons and to dismantle existing nuclear arsenals require
adequate funding to be successful.
Conclusion
Nuclear proliferation cannot be halted
without the nuclear weapons states making serious, significant
and sustained moves toward nuclear disarmament. This means that
nuclear disarmament can no longer be placed on the back burner,
while attempting to halt proliferation by force. To prevent proliferation,
double standards must end and the nuclear weapon states must
engage with determination in fulfilling their long overdue obligations
to achieve nuclear disarmament. A world safe from nuclear threat
will be a world without nuclear weapons or one moving rapidly
in this direction. It will also be one in which all nuclear materials
and weapons are under strict and effective international controls.
This requires a new way of viewing security, one free of double
standards. It is a way made necessary by the need to prevent
even a single nuclear weapon or the materials to make one from
falling into the hands of non-state extremists who are not subject
to being deterred by threat of retaliation.
Albert Einstein said, somewhat enigmatically,
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." We
can imagine what will happen to our cities, to civilization and
to life if we fail to prevent nuclear weapons from proliferating
and being used. But can we summon the political will to prevent
these imaginable catastrophes caused by the unleashing of nuclear
weapons somewhere on earth from destroying our collective future
and causing untold sorrow?
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. He is the co-author of Nuclear Weapons
and the World Court.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A
Journey to Rafah
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|