A reader comments on the report on the attempt to spread nuclear technology to the Middle East:
On the one hand, I’m impressed that Saudi Arabia has read the writing on the wall for petroleum, and are busily transitioning away from powering their country using fossil fuels. They’re investing big in nuclear and renewables, it seems. On another hand, it would be some nice schadenfreude to see them stuck with a huge nuclear albatross around their neck. But on yet another hand, they’re clearly trying to serve multiple purposes, both wean themselves off oil and make themselves a nuclear weapons power, to stave off both Israel and Iran. And of course, the current administration and too numerous a cabal of rich old white guys don’t give a flying fuck about the survival of civilization in this world if it means they have a few more millions of dollars as bragging rights.
Yes. Saudi Arabia is an unapologetic theocracy, and since theology is rarely corralled by rationality, it makes me a little nervous to think of any theocracy having a nuclear weapons capability. Oh, I suppose we could argue that Pakistan is the counter-example, and I hope existential threats are enough that they won’t lob a nuclear missile at their similarly armed adversary, India, but the collateral damage issue makes this entire approach to managing nuclear-armed countries more than a little iffy.
