There was once this sort of concern over dreadnoughts (the modern all-big-gun battleship). The British were the first to launch one, instantly rendering all other capital ships obsolete. It was considered the ultimate weapon. In very short order there were more dreadnoughts built by Britain, the USA, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan. Then some of the minor naval powers wanted them, although they really could hardly afford them.

Eventually Greece and Spain got a couple each. Russia built four of them. In South America the Argentinians, Chileans, and Brazilians purchased one or two each. All those ships achieved in the end was to raise needless fears and cause massive spending. The Spanish ones were lost through accidents. The Greeks had one sunk in 1941 by the Luftwaffe. The South American dreadnoughts never fought their counterparts, and were all eventually scrapped.

This ought to serve as some kind of lesson, I think. If I were in charge of a smaller country, I would want to spend the money on something positive, and certainly not on nuclear weapons. They only serve to make you a target for other nuclear weapons.

However, there's a lot of fear out there. Perhaps we should take iniatitives to reduce those fears, rather than to pre-emptively attack late comers to the "club". When a dog is frightened, cornered, and likely to bite if approached, you don't calm him down by yelling threats and waving a club in his face.

- LH