by Rick Shepard

Created on: December 28, 2009   Last Updated: December 29, 2009

The United States renouncing Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD is like a school teacher telling her students not to cuss on the playground. It just doesn't do much good.

First, let's do away with WMD. It's too sterilized. They're bombs. They tear bodies apart. Limbs fly all over the place. Parents don't make it home for dinner. Children are ripped from their mothers' arms. They burn people alive.

There are roughly 200 nations across the globe (this number fluctuates due to diplomatic recognition and internal struggles), each pursuing their own individual interests. Each independent state's governing body is primarily focused on one outcome: Continuity of power. This is accomplished through a variety of means. In a free and democratic society, peace and prosperity go a long way in assuring the political class they will retain power. In a dictatorial regime, fear and intimidation are often the methods of choice.

Teddy Roosevelt famously said, of United States foreign policy, that it's wise to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. He understood as well as any president in history, that there are people that despise freedom & liberty. Americans enjoy unprecedented levels of both and find it foreign that there are places on this planet where people are tortured, raped, and murdered - people who's only sin was speaking out against their leaders.

The global community is like a classroom, or job site, or any other place where large numbers of people get together. Some countries behave as responsible adults, while others continually bully others in the group to get what they want (it should be noted that all countries, the U.S. included, fluctuate in this regard based on who's in office).

The global 'family of nations' is just like any family on your street. There are some people in your family you would trust with a gun to protect everyone from intruders and to bring home food. There are others that you wouldn't trust to crawl through the kitchen with a dull butter knife.

Take Iran for instance. The current regime consistently flaunts their intentions to develop nuclear weapons along with their hatred for the nation of Israel. Now religious views aside, both of these countries have large numbers of small children who just want cereal and cartoons. They don't want radiation, famine, poverty, death, and destruction visited upon them.

Countries like Iran are led by irresponsible and violent regimes with complete disregard for where they stand on the world stage. They believe in respect through intimidation rather than mutual civilized discourse. These nations simply cannot be trusted.

Renouncing WMD is fruitless. The primary reason areas in our own country with laws allowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns (Vermont and Texas, for example) experience less gun-related violence than, say, the nation's capital is because the criminals don't know who has one.

Ronald Reagan understood this concept quite well. For nine years leading up to his famous “Tear Down This Wall” speech, he worked tirelessly to impress on the Soviet leadership the futility of competing with us in a nuclear arms race. Ultimately the truth won that fight.

WMD are awful and menacing threats to humanity, but they're a fact of life. The best way, in the real world, to stop those hell-bent on our destruction is to continuously strive to ensure we have the biggest stick on the block.

Learn more about this author, Rick Shepard.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.