Flying nukes

Last week a B-52 bomber flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana carrying six cruise missiles for decommssioning. So far so good. But even the bomber's crew was unaware that nuclear warheads were attached to the cruise missiles. The U.S. thereby violated a treaty committing itself not to fly around with nukes. (CNN: "Air Force investigates mistaken transport of nuclear warheads")

The incident is considered to be a major breach of security. So here we have the U.S. accusing Iran of endangering world security - although the Iranians don't have nuclear weapons - while the U.S. air force is flying nuclear warheads around the country. Nuclear weapons should be dismantled so nobody can fly around with them, even by mistake. No, they could not have detonated, but if the B-52 would have crashed, radiation would have contaminated a large area, possibly including population centers.