Re: Babel

On Fri, 5 Apr 2024, John Dallman wrote:

In article <uukslj$80pc$1@dont-email.me>, jeff.urs@gmail.com (Jeff Urs)
wrote:
>

Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:

Confiscating the major weapons is the real problem. Picking up
nuclear weapons and carrying them off would cause all kinds of
international and logistical issues, and someone might decide to
launch them rather than give them up. They're probably already
poorly maintained and unreliable, but that could just mean that
instead of blowing up their intended target, they'll blow up
somebody else.

>
In all the history of the Thing, only Bilbo -- I mean, Ukraine --
has voluntarily given it up, and that took all our help...

>
More than just Ukraine.
>
Kazakhstan and Belarus also inherited nuclear weapons from the USSR and
returned them to Russia.

White russia is basically russia, so giving up their weapons probably wasn't the greatest choice for them.
Kazakhstan is currently booming due to the new business of smuggling money in and out of russia, and weapons parts as well. At least an acquaintance with strong connections to Kazakhstan tells me so.

Apartheid South Africa developed nuclear weapons, but dismantled them
before the transition to the majority-elected African National
Congress?led government.
>
There have also been states capable of building nuclear weapons that
decided not to do so, at lest so far. They include Sweden, Japan, Germany,
Canada, and the Netherlands.
>
>