The author is berating the previous government for not putting up proposals on nuclear weapons that are not enforceable and are not supported by the nations that actually have the weapons.

The general assembly is like an old politician's club where grandiose proposals are voted on between lunch and dinner and then globally ignored.

I would hope that the new government does not pander to this gravy train where Mugabe's and Sudan's hencemen sit on the panel for human rights.

Future is in a development of nuces.

United Nations General Assembly, however slow and inadequate it might be, is really all we have, as a start in a planet-saving movement towards global peace, and a liveable environment.

Under the Howard government, Australia moved towards a strange sort of "unilateralist" position. It wasn't really "unilateralist", because Howard simply tied Australia's policies directly to the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld administration.

In doing this, Howard appeared to the world, and was, a sycophant to George W. Bush. So enthusiasticly a fan of George W.Bush, Howard joined him in disregard of other nations, and contempt for the United Nations. Even when he knew that the AWB had been bribing Saddam Hussein, Howard tried to shift the blame to the UN, and with some media help, imposed on Australians his own view of contempt for the UN.

This attitude suddenly looks strangely antiquated. In this world of global warming, people everywhere are waking up to the fact that, with a global problem, co-operative global solutions are now essential.
The nuclear arms race is equally a global problem.

The United Nations might be "a poor thing, Sir, but mine own". It's all we've got, to take on this problem. So - let's allow Howard to slip away intio oblivion, where he belongs. There is some hope that we now have a forward-looking government, open to international co-operation.
Christina Macpherson www.antinuclear.net

Oh dear. Does a new Labor Government mean that Australian defence policies and issues will be decided in the UN? Is it just the beginning of a decade of feelgood idealism? Is the Rudd Government about to be hijacked by the Labor Left?

Its the closed, militaristic societies who frequently hide behind UN numbers who work to "out" the open societies. These closed societies will build their nuclear weapons and deploy them in secret - regardless of their UN ratification behaviour.

Will we become a passive, though self-righteous, receiver of defence protection like NZ under NZ Labor's Helen Morse?

Fortunately our aircraft and submarines are nuclear capable with the Harpoon Land Attack missiles. Their conventional warheads could perhaps be substituted for nuclear warheads (from Israel or the US) in weeks. Does this mean we should have no Harpoons, no aircraft, no submarines? Lets put it to the UN.

If Australia is to become an independent country with independent defence and foreign policies we need to begin to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Otherwise we will be forced to follow US troops wherever the US tells us to fight - be it Iraq, Afghanistan and perhaps Iran and Pakistan in future.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com

Nuclear weapons are the ultimate equaliser. A simple fact that scares the US.

Moreover, they are efficient and economical and for that reason probably not favoured by the conventional arms industry. It is highly likely that Australia could develop nuclear weapons faster than say Indonesia meaning its better to not develop them now and risk SEA arms race.

Also, recall that Oliphant headed the British team at Los Alomos and Britian needed our help with its programme when the US said, "no" to Britain's nuclear ambitions [tied up with the politics of the Suez Crisis]. Finally, Enhanced Radiation Weapons have a broader domain than bombs; one needs only to skatter isotopes.

Oh dear - Oliver, and the well-named Plantagenet - don't seem to notice that nuclear weapons facilities immediately become nuclear targets.

Also, I didn't know that our Aussie actors were so influential.
Apparently that fine actor, Helen Morse, actually runs New Zealand.

Just as the world is now waking up, and fast, to the growing danger of global warming, it will wake up to the more immediate peril of nuclear war. The Doomsday Clock, of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, recently warned us yet again of how urgent is this risk.

I don't that all the lobbying and corporate greed of the pro-nukes is going to be able to con the world much longer. The fossil fuel industries are failing in their long and expensive campaign, to deny global warming. The nuclear lobby will be the next to be exposed for the fraud that it is.
Christina Macpherson www.antinuclear.net