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Seventy years ago, humankind's greatest war unlocked the unparalleled destructive power of atomic energy. U.S. nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped end that great war in an eye-blinding flash, closing a conflict that had slaughtered and maimed tens of millions. But the invention of nuclear weapons has been like the opening of Pandora's Box, unleashing a great, uncontrollable evil on the world, with only hope standing between humanity and annihilation.
The subatomic science essential to building nuclear weapons is more complicated than rocket science. But the atom bomb theory perfected during the Manhattan Project and the practice of nuclear warfare perfected in the skies over Japan in 1945 are relatively easy to replicate in countries determined to possess The Bomb.
Iran is far from the first nation to storm the barred gates of The Nuclear Club and threaten to upset the international pecking order.
In addition to the five WWII victors -- America, China, France, Great Britain and Russia -- there are at least a half-dozen other countries that possess nuclear weapons. The relative newcomers to The Nuclear Club include arch enemies India and Pakistan, as well as North Korea, the longest-standing Stalinist state in history.
Unless the international community bans nuclear weapons, Iran will be far from the last country to develop The Bomb.
In addition to India and Pakistan in South Asia, atomic arms races are budding around the world. Iranian leaders have pointed to Israel's top-secret nuclear weapons program as justification for Tehran's atomic weapon ambitions. In response to the North Korean leadership's drive to become nuclear-armed, even atom-bomb-adverse Japan is considering whether to build and deploy nuclear weapons.
It will take a Herculean effort to close Pandora's Nuclear Box. But only a ban on the possession of nuclear weapons can save humanity from an otherwise inevitable atomic warfare nightmare.
