Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons have been around for less than 100 years and yet they are the central focus around war and violence as more and more countries are implementing nuclear weapons in their main military strategies. In 1938, 3 chemists in Berlin discovered the power to construct nuclear weapons when they split the uranium atom (cite). In 1939, physicist Albert Einstein, concerned about the rise of Hitler, sent a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt warning him of this discover and the horrific implications of it if the power ended up in the wrong hands. This ultimately led to what is known as the Manhattan Project and the United States scientific and military efforts to be the first country to build an atomic bomb. They succeeded on …show more content…
One of the main reasons being the horrible destruction caused by a nuclear weapon. Although there have only been two nuclear bombs in history ever to be dropped, both by the United States against Japan during World War II, the devastating effects have shaken people to this day. In total between the two bombs there were over 279,000 causalities of innocent civilians not including those who survived but were ultimately exposed to extreme radiation that would negatively effect their offspring and generations to come. Besides this, the two bombs left both Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed with buildings collapsed, infrastructure destroyed, and an environment ruined. The amount of financial and medical aid needed to fix these ailing cities cause numerous amounts of economic turmoil even with the humanitarian aid given by other states including the United States. The radiation also destroyed most of the cities agriculture which would take years to have fresh enough soil in order to regrow. Ultimately the main concerns with nuclear weapons are the negative impact and damage on the environment, cities, and people. However, this is not a good enough reason to try and abolish nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons cannot be abolished for good because states are not going to give up their nuclear weapons because they don’t trust other states to do the same and they want military and security assurance. However, just because states have nuclear weapons does not mean they are going to use them. A state is not likely going to use a nuclear weapon against another state that also has a nuclear weapon due to the mass destruction on both states. A nuclear-weapon state is also not likely to gage war against a weaker state and even if it does they would be able to use their military power against the state and would not need to use their nuclear weapons. Ultimately just because a state has nuclear weapon