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U.S. May Have To Accept Nuclear Proliferation, More Nations Wielding Bomb

By Staff Writer | June 25, 2007

      The United States may have to accept that the atomic genie is out of the bottle, as steadily more nations will possess nuclear weapons, including some states hostile to the United States, a think tanker stated.

      Charles V. Pena, senior fellow at the Independent Institute Center on Peace and Liberty, wrote that “the number of nuclear powers … will grow over the next decade and … many of those … will be unfriendly regimes.”

      The United States, while it should attempt to delay hostile nations gaining nuclear powers, shouldn’t begin “beating up on peaceful states that want to become nuclear powers,” because their motivation is to prevent hostile nations from obtaining a nuclear monopoly in a region, Pena argued.

      Advocates of the United States forming a multi-layered ballistic missile defense (BMD) system argue that rogue regimes already are building nuclear capabilities, along with increasing missile expertise and systems, and therefore the BMD shield must be developed and made operational to prevent the United States and its allies from facing nuclear blackmail by rogue states.

      Pena offered his observations in a 45-page report entitled “Nuclear Nonproliferation in the Post-9/11 World” that was published by the Independent Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Oakland, Calif.