Some militarists still claim that the country that has the greatest nuclear arsenal holds the best cards in the game of “mutual destruction.”
“It has kept America and Russia from starting a nuclear war for 60 years,” they say. “Why change the equation?”
They refuse to look at today’s total nuclear landscape and consider alternatives.
When there were only two nuclear powers, their argument made sense. Today there is a list of countries trying to play the same game, and more countries wanting to get in. India and Pakistan are a good example. They think that nuclear weapons make safe neighbors. Do they? Will they forever?
Then there is the great outlier: Israel. The whole world knows it has a large nuclear stockpile as a saber to rattle at Iran and other perceived enemies. But because it has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, it hasn’t been invited into the same nuclear agreements signed by other nuclear powers.
If mutual destruction were such a potent argument, Israel should want Iran to possess them too, to make them both safe from the other.
This reality leaves most members of the United Nations afraid that a rogue Israel may use its nuclear weapons to reach its stated goal of a greater Israel that encompasses all of Palestine and parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey. Israel believes that only Iran can keep it from this overarching goal. Even with America’s help in starting a war with Iran, the Persians are not weakened enough.
Perhaps Israel will decide that a nuclear attack on Iran is its only option.
Israel has moved the world from the surety of “mutual destruction” to the fear that a rogue nation like Israel may start a nuclear war in the Middle East. Though in bed with the United States, Israel is not under American control. All of America’s nuclear arsenal, including more than a trillion dollars in new weaponry, is of no use if Israel acts preemptively.
Now is the time for the whole world to come together and agree to new measures that will diminish the real danger of nuclear war. Russia was ready to renew important nuclear treaties, but America let them expire. Like Ronald Reagan, our president should lead the way to a sane approach to the prevention of nuclear war. This should include the control of new tactical nuclear weapons because they can lead to nuclear escalation and another Hiroshima.
The theory of mutual destruction has seen its day. It is “world destruction” that we must all work together to prevent.
Without signed nuclear agreements by all nuclear powers, including Israel, we are moving steadily toward nuclear war.
Gale McNeeley
Santa Maria
This article appears in September 17 – September 24, 2026.
