He’s gonna get a bomb

First we had the bomb and that was good,
’cause we love peace and brotherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb but that’s OK,
‘Cause the balance of power’s maintained that way.
Who’s next?

Well France got the bomb but don’t you grieve,
’cause they’re our allies – I believe.
Then China got the bomb but have no fears,
’cause they can’t wipe us out for at least five years!
Who’s next?

Egypt’s gonna get one too, just to use on You Know Who.
So Israel’s getting tense, wants one in self-defence.
The Lord’s our shepherd says the psalm, but just in case –
We’re gonna get a bomb!
Who’s next?

Well Indonesia said that they, were gonna get one anyday,
South Africa wants two, that’s right.
One for the Black and one for the White!
Who’s next?

Well Luxembourg is next to go, then who knows maybe Monaco?
We’ll try to stay serene and calm….
When Alabama gets the bomb.
Who’s next, who’s next, who’s next, who’s next?

Tom Lehrer

Well North Korea has gotten themselves a nuke, and whatever the world decides to do about it, Kim Jr. is being treated like a major player, which seems to be what he wanted all along.

To me it seems like being a small country with one or two nukes is like holding a pistol on a roomful of men armed with machine guns. Sure you could do some damage for a second or two, but…

Now that North Korea has one, does anybody doubt that Iran is not far behind? The most optimistic predictions had an Iranian bomb from 5-10 years off. Now they can just buy/ borrow one.

Still, small countries make convenient targets, i.e. it’s not difficult to plaster the whole damn place with comparatively little of the arsenal of any of the Big Three nuclear powers and they know this.

What we’ve got to wonder about is:

1) Are either of these guys crazy enough to openly use one on us or any friend of ours? Well if either one did, it would likely only happen once. Afterwards there’d be a salutary example that the world would remember for a lo-o-o-ong time.

2) Would either try to funnel some nukes to terrorists with no fixed address, while maintaining deniability? Oh dear, this offers some problems. A response might be to announce in advance that any unexplained nuclear bombing would be followed by the bombing of: Tehran, Damascus, Pyongyang, Paris… (just kidding, sort of).

3) If Kim Jr. and Amenaboo-boo are really crazy or out of touch enough to try something like that, would the people around them let them get away with it? Because a country has a suicidal psycho leader does not necessarily mean that he’s surrounded by suicidal psychos.

Well we’ll probably wind up trying sanctions for a while. Who knows, if China’s on board it might even work. On the other hand, millions more Koreans are going to starve to death because nobody’s got the juevos to calculate the “terrible arithmatic” that Lincoln spoke of. And starving men do tend to get desperate.