Articles 
MISSILE MADNESS WEEK:
DEAFENING SILENCE AS INDIA LAUNCHES AGNI-1 NUCLEAR MISSILE, US LAUNCHES
MINUTEMAN-III, PAKISTAN LAUNCHES GHAURI, AND ROK POSTPONES LAUNCH
A NUCLEAR MISSILE IS A NUCLEAR MISSILE IS A NUCLEAR MISSILE
At exactly the same time as the DPRK launched its Unha satellite launch
vehicle (whose satellite now seems to be spinning out of control)
India launched an unambiguously military Agni-1 missile in response
to a Pakistani launch last week. As the US (Nov14) launched a
Minuteman-III missile, a handful of dedicated protestors
demonstrated. As Pakistan launched a Nodong- derived Ghauri missile,
there was silence though an Indian tit-for-tat was certain. We knew
there was going to be a South Korean (RoK) launch only when it was
postponed until 2013. And the Indian riposte to Pakistan's 'training'
launch, itself billed as a 'training' launch, has been met by
silence.
Nuclear weapons represent the greatest immediate threat to human survival
that there is. Their proliferation means more fingers on more
triggers. At the same time, 95% of all the nuclear warheads that
exist, are in the hands of the US and Russia, who maintain some 2000
warheads in permanent high alert, able to be launched literally not
in the weeks it has taken the DPRK to launch a satellite that still
seemingly is not working properly, but in tens of seconds. Their
complete arsenals are still each over 10,000 warheads, operational
and otherwise.
The single most dangerous nuclear 'flashpoint', and the most likely site
for a nuclear war involving over 100 Hiroshima – sized warheads
with a possible body count of over 150 million in hours, and with
catastrophic global climatic effects as a 'side effect' is India vs
Pakistan – and India launched its Agni-1nuclear missile yesterday
and Pakistan last week.
It's been a week of missile madness. And a nuclear missile is a nuclear
missile is a nuclear missile.
Yet the silence has been deafening, apart from all the hyperventilating
over the DPRK. There have been FIVE missile launches in the last ten
days.(three of them unambiguously nuclear missiles). Only one of
them has attracted any attention. Doesn't this mean questions need
answering?
We should be at least as exercised by the Minutemen-III nuclear missile
launches, the Topol-M nuclear missile launches, and the Ghauri and
Agni nuclear missile launches, as we are by the DPRKs bumbling
attempts to put a primitive satellite into orbit atop a launch
vehicle that takes weeks to set up and is anything but reliable -
and still hasn't worked yet.
John Hallam
61-2-9810-2598
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