Scrap Trident?
22/4/10 23:03![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsSeeing as it's International Relations Week, here is another hot potato for you.
Ok , I have my own take on this, but it is contentious - so convert me!
I think that Britain should not replace Trident, the nuclear missile system , because the UK does not need it.
It isn't just that we can hide behind America and use theirs instead - I think we should give up using nukes altogether.
Ok - who is going to attack the UK?
Well, Argentina and Spain might. Argentina already has, in fact. But nuclear weapons did not deter agression. The resolute use of conventional force evicted the Argantine invaders from the Falklands, though, so Britain should keep conventional forces and abandon Trident, I say.
But what about the Russians, I hear some ask.
Well, if Russia wants to invade the UK, it isn't starting from th Berlin Wall anymore. That landmark is not even there. The reds have got to start from their own border, fight thru Poland, then half of Germany, just to get where they used to be - then carry on invading Europe to reach us. And have they got the means and the motive any more? I doubt it.
Korea? They have to invade China first.
China? Surely they don't have any ambition to invade Europe - they would be more interested in competition with Japan and other places in that side of the world.
So, I don't think any nation has got the means and the motivation to attack us. but what do you say?
Also, nuclear weapons produce the ingredients for the ' dirty bomb '- a decent option from a terrorist's POV.
Nuclear power produces a mere 4 % of our electricity, but 100% of our weapons grade plutonium.
I think we can safely do without nuclear power, and the nukes they produce.
What say you, O politically savvy community watchers?
Ok , I have my own take on this, but it is contentious - so convert me!
I think that Britain should not replace Trident, the nuclear missile system , because the UK does not need it.
It isn't just that we can hide behind America and use theirs instead - I think we should give up using nukes altogether.
Ok - who is going to attack the UK?
Well, Argentina and Spain might. Argentina already has, in fact. But nuclear weapons did not deter agression. The resolute use of conventional force evicted the Argantine invaders from the Falklands, though, so Britain should keep conventional forces and abandon Trident, I say.
But what about the Russians, I hear some ask.
Well, if Russia wants to invade the UK, it isn't starting from th Berlin Wall anymore. That landmark is not even there. The reds have got to start from their own border, fight thru Poland, then half of Germany, just to get where they used to be - then carry on invading Europe to reach us. And have they got the means and the motive any more? I doubt it.
Korea? They have to invade China first.
China? Surely they don't have any ambition to invade Europe - they would be more interested in competition with Japan and other places in that side of the world.
So, I don't think any nation has got the means and the motivation to attack us. but what do you say?
Also, nuclear weapons produce the ingredients for the ' dirty bomb '- a decent option from a terrorist's POV.
Nuclear power produces a mere 4 % of our electricity, but 100% of our weapons grade plutonium.
I think we can safely do without nuclear power, and the nukes they produce.
What say you, O politically savvy community watchers?
(no subject)
Date: 23/4/10 06:53 (UTC)As others have said, America was isolationist, only came in when it's own interests were seriously threatened - like all nations , I grant you, but the point is that we cannot count on American help for nothing. We have no bases to offer them this time.
What makes it possible is the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of the Warsaw Pact; the Proximity of China to the Pacific , not the Atlantic and the short range of Korea's missile system. We are not facing nuclear threat any more, quite simply.
(no subject)
Date: 23/4/10 10:59 (UTC)Yes. You can scrap Trident, and then hide behind American power the way that most of Europe already does. That way, American can play world cop the way that we always do, when one of our allies that is actually armed, defangs themselves.
It would be stupid as hell of you, but you could do it. What makes me laugh is that you want to do it, even though you'd think America would let England twist in wind if you all were threatened.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't seem too bright of you.