Let's drop the big one and see what happens

Randy Newman's biting tribute to nuclear madness Political Science has never seemed more apt. Might I suggest it be retitled "Talkin' John Bolton Blues"?

No one likes us
I don't know why
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try
But all around even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful
They don't respect us, so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Now Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old
Africa's far too hot
And Canada's too cold
South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They've got surfing, too!

Well, boom goes London
And boom Paree
More room for you
And more room for me

And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it'll be
We'll set everybody free
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby
There'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now

Let's drop the big one now

You wouldn't know it by* watching TV news or reading the Post or Times, but the past few months have been eventful in terms of nuclear arms. While a shocking amount of ink has been spilled over proliferation in the form of Iran's iffy nuclear desires, not much has been said about the behavior of the U.S. in recent months.
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* dang—I do say that a lot, don't I?
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George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian, has this cheerful report:

Saturday is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The nuclear powers are commemorating it in their own special way: by seeking to ensure that the experiment is repeated.

... It is because nuclear weapons confer power and status on the states that possess them that the non-proliferation treaty, of which the UK was a founding signatory, determines two things: that the non-nuclear powers should not acquire nuclear weapons, and that the nuclear powers should "pursue negotiations in good faith on ... general and complete disarmament". Blair has unilaterally decided to rip it up.

But in helping to wreck the treaty we are only keeping up with our friends across the water. In May the US government launched a systematic assault on the agreement. The summit in New York was supposed to strengthen it, but the US, led by John Bolton - the undersecretary for arms control (someone had a good laugh over that one) - refused even to allow the other nations to draw up an agenda for discussion. The talks collapsed, and the treaty may now be all but dead. Needless to say, Bolton has been promoted: to the post of US ambassador to the UN.

...Thanks to Bush and Blair, we might not go out with a whimper after all.

Read the whole article...