Figures that don't figure

     Thanks to internet, lot's of information is available these days. For example: the Pentagon spent nearly $500 billion in its war efforts in Iraq and Afganistan. Anyone can go to http://www.independent.org of 15-3-07 and discover that there was also a tidy expenditure of $16.6 billion for the development of nuclear weapons.

      What?  Hasn't the Cold War ended? It doesn't figure, does it? Isn't the United States concerned that other countries cease developing nuclear weapons?

        During the Cold War there was talk about a so-called "balance of terror." That is, if the two main protagonists--the U.S. and the Soviet Union--both had similar quantities of atomic weapons they would theoretically think twice before using them.  

        Now we live in a "uni-polar" world in which--if the information on the U.S. nuclear budget is correct--the center of world power develops nuclear weapons while daily admonishing "axis of evil" countries such as Iran and North Korea to abandon any attempts to develop them. Does that figure? Are we entering a new and more complex Cold War? Or are we to suppose that weapons of mass destruction are safe if in the hands of countries such as the United States, Israel, Pakistan, India...but not in those not friendly to Washington?

        Isn't there something questionable about the prevailing notion of duality: good against evil? Can the world's complex social, economic, cultural and religious problems be dealt with by formulas or categories dividing what is considered "good" or "correct" from what is said to be "evil," or incorrect?" Might it not be wiser to envisage a world tolerant and protective of diversity? Might not that at least ameliorate the threat of violence and cultural devastation?

       The answers are not easy to find. But...any scientist knows that a theory works until it is discovered to be based on false premises. Truth is like that, isn't it? Illusive, maybe never to be found. But worth looking for.