The UK Parliament, rushed to judgement by PM Tony Blair, has just passed a motion to renew the British Trident Nuclear Submarine Program. It’s difficult to see the nuclear “deterrent” as useful in the real world. It is simply more “macho” to have nukes than to work for their elimination around the world. The wars in Korea, Vietnam, Falklands, Kuwait and the Gulf were not deterred by UK weapons.

How useful will submarines be against terrorists, the only known enemy of Britain? Even Blair agrees. But he cannot see Britain as the model nation it could be. Trident II certainly compromises all the disarmament measures the world has been striving to promote:the NPT, ABM, CTBT and a comprehensive treaty to ban all nuclear weapons. Most of the southern hemisphere is now a nuclear-free zone. By maintaining its nuclear arsenal, the UK may be more vulnerable to attack. In any case, other countries will be encouraged to obtain these “deterrents”. For six months hundreds of women have been protesting at the Faslane base in Scotland where the Trident is based. Some have been imprisoned for a day. They will continue until next October. The Scots voted 70% against the renewing of the Trident and the Scottish parliament has the right to withhold funding. The cost is estimated at 20-70 BILLION pounds. The Scottish National Party plans to charge Britain one million pounds per nuclear warhead transported across Scottish soil.

I am further outraged by the idea that the UK will put more nuclear submarines in the world’s oceans where they constantly emit radiation. Many nuclear subs have already ended up on the ocean floor, their nuclear reactors and weapons contaminating the global fishing grounds. Submarine chasing is a dangerous and pointless game. I hope the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the brave women at Faslane, being imprisoned for protesting will win out for all our sakes.

References:

Disarmament Diplomacy, Winter 2006 #85 http://www.acronym.org.uk
CND:“http://www.cnduk.org”:http://www.cnduk.org