FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The number of countries with nuclear weapons could more than double in the next few years unless the major powers take serious steps towards disarmament. So says the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency... Mohamed El Baradei tells the British newspaper The Guardian that the current international regime that limits the spread of nuclear weapons is in danger of collapsing.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed El Baradei is pictured at the 'Managing Global Insecurity' conference in Berlin.
The 1970 nuclear non-proliferation treaty was supposed to restrict membership in the nuclear club to the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K. and France. But it has been less than successful. For the last 40 years, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea have all been developing nuclear weapons outside of this framework.
El Baradei predicts the next wave of proliferation will include so-called virtual nuclear weapons states - countries potentially like Iran, who can produce plutonium or highly enriched uranium - and know how to make the weapons, but haven't gotten there quite yet. He says soon there could be nine nuclear weapons states and another 10-20 virtual weapons states.
El Baradei suggests the only solution is for established nuclear powers to live up to non-proliferation guidelines and disarm as quickly as possible. Only then will the major powers have the moral authority to go to these wannabe weapons countries and ask them to stop.
Here’s my question to you: What can be done to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Jeff writes:
After the Soviets detonated their first atomic bombs, Air Force General Curtis LeMay advocated putting B-29's over Moscow and trucking out the nuclear material. The original signatories to the Nuclear Arms Proliferation Treaty should consider this idea in regards to the rogue countries.
Lance from Ridgecrest, California writes:
Nuke one of the "would be countries" to remind the world why we have a non-proliferation treaty. The problem is that everyone knows a civilized country won't use nukes, so they just thumb their noses when we try to tell them not to develop nukes. The danger is, many of the "would be countries" like Iran, N. Korea, and organizations like Hamas, Taliban, al Qaeda, have absolutely no qualms about using nukes if they can get their hands on them, and they will sooner or later.
Kerry writes:
First of all, stop relying on the UN to control the issue! By the time they react and agree to do something, the offending party already has added nukes to their arsenal. We must be more proactive on our own or with key allies in keeping the technology and secrets out of the hands of those individuals and countries/nations intent on increasing their war arsenal.
Jay writes:
Easy. Destroy all the ones that exist, and don't make any more. Unfortunately for terrorists, building a nuke is a tad harder than building a car bomb. Thousands of people, billions of dollars...not something you can do in the garage in secret. Want to stop nuclear weapons proliferation? Scrap em all. The bad guys can't build them on their own from scratch without being detected
Joe writes:
Dream on. The genie's been let out of the bottle and good luck putting it back in. Nations and groups looking to gain some level of power will want these things. It’s sad that as smart as our species is supposed to be, we act like morons most of the time.