“The Security Council Veto Power, or Got Nuke?”. Incite. December 05, 2004 – “There’s something very fundamental about the SC’s five permanent members which people have completely lost sight of today. They are the five nations who have a nuclear arsenal. Recently, India and Pakistan have joined the ranks of nuclear weapon armed nations, and god knows how many other countries have a few in secret (or not-so-secret as in the case of North Korea). But there’s a big difference between having a few nukes and having an arsenal.
Think about the meaning of the word security here folks. The reason the SC permanent members have a veto is because ultimately, they five, unlike any other nation on earth, have the power to blot out all life on the face of the planet. THAT is why they have permanent member status.
You don’t give away veto power to be nice. You don’t do it to be fair. You dont’ do it because it’s the right thing to do. As things go, a UN Security Council veto right is one of the single most powerful diplomatic tools there is. You give veto power only to those nations who, if they don’t get their way, have the power to express their displeasure by turning the globe into a charcoal briquette. In other words, you give it to the nations who–thanks to their nuclear missiles–already have effective veto power anyway.”
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