FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Monday, December 04, 2006
Nuclear Nonsense
Today, Tony Blair tells us that for the United Kingdom to give up nuclear weapons would be unwise and dangerous. Apparently, spending something in the region of £20 billion on new weapons of mass destruction is good for world peace and security. Is it just me who'd rather our tax money went on something useful, like schools and hospitals?!
The logic that the cabinet is pedaling today seems to be that if we keep our nuclear weapons really up to date (and by that we mean hugely destructive and capable of bringing any country on the globe to total devastation at the drop of a hat) this will discourage others from developing similar such weapons.. or, at least, it will discourage them from pointing their weapons in our direction. It's the classic cold-war stand-off mentality: as long as we're all clear that if anyone whatsoever presses the button we're all done for then nobody would be stupid enough to do it. The only trouble with that argument is that there is ALWAYS somebody with more ambition than sense willing to give it a go. That person doesn't need to be in our country and (s)he doesn't have to be governed by our sense of logic - there are plenty of people out there willing to die for their cause so why should nuclear war be any different?
This all reminds me of the 'second amendment' argument in the United States: the pro-gun lobby tell their peers that the right to bear arms is not only constitutional in that country but that carrying that principle out in daily life also makes the place safer. This, even despite the undisputed fact that the USA has one of the highest rates of gun murder in the world (if not THE highest). The basic crooks of it is that if I have a large gun and make it clear to everyone around me how big and powerful it is then noone will dare to try it on. But, as the figures demonstrate, people will and they do. Stockpiling a huge array of weapons does not stop anyone who is determined enough to attack you.
And, so we get onto the issue of hypocrisy: to the outside world it mustn't seem very fair that the governments of the UK and the USA throw their collective weight around on this issue. The most recent war in Iraq that continues to be waged was allegedly about a country developing weapons of mass destruction. The entire premise of our involvement in this war (or, so our leaders would like us to believe) was to stop another country developing nuclear warheads. And then our own PM is willing to stand up and announce a whole new weapons programme for the UK. We're already part of an alliance that is sitting on the world's largest stockpile of WMD's and we're talking about spending money on more of them, while also bullying other nations when their own governments see fit to do the same.
This really is sick. It's sick and it is deeply worrying. Blair couldn't do a better job of making Britain a target for terrorism if he erected a giant beacon in the middle of Trafalgar Square for them to point at. Our government seems to be doing everything it can to highlight the sheer hypocrisy of its actions: invading countries who they accuse of developing WMD's while openly expanding our own programme, all the while neglecting to concern itself at all with other atrocities around the world... you know, as long as they don't effect our Western economy.
It's time we gave a resounding "NO" to Blair and his government by voting against them in the coming elections. We did not want a war with Afghanistan in our name. We did not want a war in Iraq in our name. And we certainly do not want to fund plans to make even more weapons that have the capacity to cause mass murder.
The logic that the cabinet is pedaling today seems to be that if we keep our nuclear weapons really up to date (and by that we mean hugely destructive and capable of bringing any country on the globe to total devastation at the drop of a hat) this will discourage others from developing similar such weapons.. or, at least, it will discourage them from pointing their weapons in our direction. It's the classic cold-war stand-off mentality: as long as we're all clear that if anyone whatsoever presses the button we're all done for then nobody would be stupid enough to do it. The only trouble with that argument is that there is ALWAYS somebody with more ambition than sense willing to give it a go. That person doesn't need to be in our country and (s)he doesn't have to be governed by our sense of logic - there are plenty of people out there willing to die for their cause so why should nuclear war be any different?
This all reminds me of the 'second amendment' argument in the United States: the pro-gun lobby tell their peers that the right to bear arms is not only constitutional in that country but that carrying that principle out in daily life also makes the place safer. This, even despite the undisputed fact that the USA has one of the highest rates of gun murder in the world (if not THE highest). The basic crooks of it is that if I have a large gun and make it clear to everyone around me how big and powerful it is then noone will dare to try it on. But, as the figures demonstrate, people will and they do. Stockpiling a huge array of weapons does not stop anyone who is determined enough to attack you.
And, so we get onto the issue of hypocrisy: to the outside world it mustn't seem very fair that the governments of the UK and the USA throw their collective weight around on this issue. The most recent war in Iraq that continues to be waged was allegedly about a country developing weapons of mass destruction. The entire premise of our involvement in this war (or, so our leaders would like us to believe) was to stop another country developing nuclear warheads. And then our own PM is willing to stand up and announce a whole new weapons programme for the UK. We're already part of an alliance that is sitting on the world's largest stockpile of WMD's and we're talking about spending money on more of them, while also bullying other nations when their own governments see fit to do the same.
This really is sick. It's sick and it is deeply worrying. Blair couldn't do a better job of making Britain a target for terrorism if he erected a giant beacon in the middle of Trafalgar Square for them to point at. Our government seems to be doing everything it can to highlight the sheer hypocrisy of its actions: invading countries who they accuse of developing WMD's while openly expanding our own programme, all the while neglecting to concern itself at all with other atrocities around the world... you know, as long as they don't effect our Western economy.
It's time we gave a resounding "NO" to Blair and his government by voting against them in the coming elections. We did not want a war with Afghanistan in our name. We did not want a war in Iraq in our name. And we certainly do not want to fund plans to make even more weapons that have the capacity to cause mass murder.
