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Nuclear flexing is scary worldwide ''Today, we have settled the score with India.'' ''We have matched India with five tests of our own.'' Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's boasting about his nation's nuclear tests are scary. So were President Rafiq Tarar's sub- sequent declaration of a state of emergency, which suspended Pakistan's constitution and legal system. Also frightening were the words of Indi- an Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who said Pakistan's tests ''vindicated'' In- dia's earlier testing of nuclear devices in what he said was an effort to counteract Pakistan's secret weapons program. Vajpayee suggested that India may re- consider its self-imposed ban on further nu- clear tests. President Clinton said the United States would impose economic sanctions against Pakistan, just as it had against India. But it is unlikely that actions by the United States -- or any others of the world's nuclear powers -- will convince either India or Pakistan to shift to a safer and more sensible policy. Besides their obsession with keeping pace with each other militarily, they see themselves as leaving the ''have nots'' and joining the ''haves'' of the world. As their citizens chant and cheer their arrival into the nuclear arms club, it seems to matter little that they also have stepped into the danger zone of mutual self destruction. Here is an opportunity for the United Nations to demonstrate its worth. Its lead- ers and some of its non-nuclear members might be the best hope in convincing Paki- stan and India to step back from flexing their nuclear muscles at each other. That could be the first step in getting them to joining the nations committed to a nuclear test ban ... and we hope to elimina- tion of the nuclear threat to the whole globe. WEATHER I OPINIONS I CALENDAR All information and coding is protected by copyright. |
