Oliver Stone in his new book," The Untold History of the United States' notes that the reason why they nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that Russia was about to invade Japan and so they needed to show their power.Japan was already defeated.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident which was used as an excuse to escallate the Vietnam War,we now find did not happen.

War is all about making money and giving power to an elite few.

You cannot divorce nuclear weapons from other weaponry. We either negotiate genuine, verifiable, disarmament or states will hang on to their nuclear deterrents.

In the end nuclear weapons are the great equaliser. Israel would likely have been destroyed in 1973* if it had not possessed a fledgling nuclear arsenal.

It is nukes that keep aggressive neighbours reasonable. Australia too may one day want to avail itself of a nuclear option.

C'est la guerre

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nickel_Grass

>>On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized the assembly of thirteen 20-kiloton nuclear warheads on Jericho missiles and F-4s, which were prepared for action against Syrian and Egyptian targets;[3] their preparation was made easily detectable, likely as a signal to the United States.[4] Kissinger learned of this threatening nuclear escalation on the morning of 9 October. On that same day, Meir issued a personal appeal for military assistance, which European nations declined. U.S. President Richard Nixon, however, ordered the commencement of Operation Nickel Grass, to replace all of Israel's materiel losses.[5] The decision was taken the same day the Soviets began their own resupply operation of Arab forces by sea.[6] Anecdotal evidence suggests that Kissinger had told Anwar El Sadat that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to "going nuclear.">>

And this from the US Air Force's "Air University"

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cpc-pubs/farr.htm

>>On the afternoon of 6 October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in a coordinated surprise attack, beginning the Yom Kippur War. …This crisis brought Israel to its second nuclear alert.

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, obviously not at his best at a press briefing, was, according to Time magazine, rattled enough to later tell the prime minister that “this is the end of the third temple,” referring to an impending collapse of the state of Israel. “Temple” was also the code word for nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Golda Meir and her “kitchen cabinet” made the decision on the night of 8 October. The Israelis assembled 13 twenty-kiloton atomic bombs. The number and in fact the entire story was later leaked by the Israelis as a great psychological warfare tool. Although most probably plutonium devices, one source reports they were enriched uranium bombs. The Jericho missiles at Hirbat Zachariah and the nuclear strike F-4s at Tel Nof were armed and prepared for action against Syrian and Egyptian targets. They also targeted Damascus with nuclear capable long-range artillery although it is not certain they had nuclear artillery shells.62

U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was notified of the alert several hours later on the morning of 9 October. The U.S. decided to open an aerial resupply pipeline to Israel, and Israeli aircraft began picking up supplies that day. Although stockpile depletion remained a concern, the military situation stabilized on October 8th and 9th as Israeli reserves poured into the battle and averted disaster. Well before significant American resupply had reached Israeli forces, the Israelis counterattacked and turned the tide on both fronts.>>

After such a close call does anyone really believe the Israelis can be persuaded to give up their nuclear deterrent?

Does anyone believe other small countries have failed to learn from Israel's near death experience?

We either have a verifiable general disarmament or the nukes will stay.

I don't believe Steven.Israel is the prime aggressor in the Middle East.They pushed for the Invasion of Iraq and now want to take Iran and Syria.Who will be next?

Only a fool would not realise that the MAD, mutually assured destruction, policy of the cold war saved millions of lives, & is still doing so today.

With out the nuclear deterrent a third world war was inevitable, & would have made the WW11 deaths look like a picnic. The few thousands of deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki earned the rest of the world a reprieve that has lasted almost 70 years. We should always remain greatful to those who's deaths was a demonstration that saved so many.

Only an utter fool would believe any nation could eliminate their nuclear deterrent, when almost any tin pot country, [even us], could produce a bomb in just a few years.

That such fools are on the payroll of any of our universities is an indictment on the management of those institutions.

When, in the history of mankind, has an invention been un-invented? We are saddled with nuclear weapons and all the pious words, all the treaties, all the earnest supplications of 149 or whatever nations mean absolutely nothing. The ability to make nuclear weapons is in the public domain and the best we can do is to manage it. The assurance that any nation which starts a nuclear war will quickly be reduced to a pile of radioactive rubble is our best and only assurance that it will not be started in the first place. Better to have treaties that keep existing weapons secure and out of the clutches of terrorists than ones that support the romantic notion they can be done away with altogether.