You would refer to a serial killer, a rapist or a kidnapper as a monster and someone who does not deserve a place in society because of their heinous crimes. Would you, however, refer to Harry S. Truman in the same way? Between the 6th and the 9th of August 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on two major Japanese cities under the order of the United States President. As you most likely know these two Japanese cities were Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Shockingly, the combined death toll from these two abhorrent weapons only three months after they had been dropped was near two hundred thousand. In some states in the USA today killing one person is punishable by death, however Truman faced no penalty for brutally slaying hundreds of thousands. Now of course the example I use here of Truman is deliberately provocative and emotive, but the essential point I am trying to make is clear. Surely you can agree with me that these monstrosities should be destroyed because of the horrors they have caused in the past alone? Not to mention how they prove a lingering threat in day to day life and the catastrophic consequences the radiation left behind has caused. Let’s start by looking at the numbers. ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons has some interesting statistics on how many nuclear weapons countries have on their website. From this we can see that China has two hundred nuclear warheads, France has three hundred, the UK two hundred and twenty five and Pakistan between one hundred and one hundred and twenty. So, how many would you expect the USA or Russia to have? Five hundred, one thousand maybe even two thousand? Would you be shocked to know that The USA actually have over seven thousand and Russia approximately eight thousand?1 These numbers are extortionate and the threat created by them is very high because of the extreme amount of damage only one of these weapons can cause. The most powerful nuclear warhead in service is the B83 nuclear warhead which is two hundred times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The blast radius of this bomb is approximately fifteen kilometres squared, meaning that Israel’s stockpile of nuclear warheads (eighty)1 would cover an area of one thousand two hundred kilometres squared. New York City just over one thousand two hundred kilometres squared meaning that Israel’s stockpile could almost completely flatten it, killing over eight and a half million people. This does not take into account the further devastation that would be caused by the extreme amounts of radiation produced by these weapons. There are five countries that, in a way, seem to think they are more trustworthy and important than the rest as they are allowed to possess nuclear weapons. These countries are referred to as recognised nuclear weapons states and are; The USA, Russia, China, France and The UK. Desmond Tutu, in an article in the Guardian, summed up the situation perfectly by saying “No nation should own nuclear arms – not Iran, not North Korea, and not their critics who take the moral high ground.” Interestingly, Mr Tutu also points out that “We should not accept that a select few nations can ensure