NORTH KOREA and IRAN and ATOM BOMBS

There has been no 'secret' re atomic weapons for at least sixty years. How to make such a bomb is common knowledge. You can find details in books and on the web. The hard part is obtaining highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the key ingredients. This is why the Nunn-Lugar bill, and the program to 'buy back' the fisssionable material left after the collapse of the USSR, is critically-important. Given widespread lawlessness within Russia and the prevalence of Mafia-type gangsters, it is not unlikely that a miscreant will get a nuclear device, or its critical fissionable material, and try to sell it.

The most recent merchant was a rogue Pakistani scientist, H.Q. Khan, who almost certainly sold key technology to both Korea and Iran. Five years ago Bush named three countries -- Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- as the 'axis of evil.' He then invaded and occupied Iraq. Consequently, Iran and North Korea seem to have concluded that their best protection against an Iraq-style American invasion is to arm themselves with an atom bomb.

The 'genie is out of the bottle' and the number of countries with atomic weapons is increasing. There is little the world can do to stop this.

But we sure ought to try. An atom bomb can destroy your city. We are actually LESS safe than we were in the 'mutual assured destruction' days of Dr. Strangelove, when weapons were [supposedly] under tight control of [supposedly] rational military and civilian leaders.

The potential horror of 'loose nukes' makes Al Qaeda terrorism seem almost trivial.