ChristinaMac

I wish the world was what you hope for but my cynicism of the Big Five and long experience dealing with weapons experts extinguishes it.

The Big Five (US, Russia, China, France, UK) “own” the UN Security Council and dominate the UN. They are not going to allow a disarmament conference to really erode the status quo that they dominate.

“Our disarmament ambassador, Caroline Miller, proclaimed at the conference last week that it’s high time we “walked the walk” instead of just “talking the talk”

Caroline is talking about a UN meeting.

Meanwhile Caroline's political masters appear to have no problems with our uranium mines making profits selling uranium to China and now Russia. These Australian uranium shipments feed Chinese and Russian nuclear reactors thus freeing-up uranium strategically mined in these two countries for nuclear weapons use.

“The new government should also reconsider our status as a nuclear “umbrella” nation.”

OK we hamstring our existing nuclear protector (the US) while happily confirming nuclear explosive agreements with historically hostile countries. This is what Putin’s siloviki call the “useful idiot track”.

“We’ve already banned chemical weapons, biological weapons and anti-personnel landmines, and a cluster bomb ban is currently being negotiated.”

The well furnished ivory tower that is the UN may be under the impression that “banning” these things stops countries doing things and hiding things. One or two US government biological warfare experts I know would disagree.

The Big Five as well as Israel either maintain stocks or “assembly in weeks” capabilities for all the weapons mentioned.

In the case of chemical and biological weapons those countries that don’t maintain stocks maintain research establishments purportedly to counter these weapons. However to counter them you need to produce the threat to test the countermeasures. The capability to produce chemical and biological for countermeasures often exceeds “trace” experimental levels and is usually a mass production capability.

I suggest the Big Five has already rigged the UN and NPT. If there isn't already a forum of exclusively non-nuclear weapons nations (no observers) there should be. This might be more effective.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

Sadly to record, the USA is and has been the greatest stumbling block both in the UN and out of it to nuclear disarmament and the abolition of biological warfare. For those who like to display the usual right-wing neo-fascist bigpotry and knee-jerk abusive reaction about this, read a few books rather than burning them.

Sadly to record, the USA is and has been the greatest stumbling block both in the UN and out of it to nuclear disarmament and the abolition of biological warfare. For those who like to display the usual right-wing neo-fascist bigotry and knee-jerk abusive reaction about this, read a few books rather than burning them.

Nucs are with us for eternity, there is no tunning back. A small nuclear war is no big deal, like if we bomb Iran soon, their are no catrostropic consequences, they can't shoot back. That is a deal we can't refuse, but with our whimp government and military leadership,
(not the boots on the ground guys), it is questionable, wheather we whimp out and allow Iran to get the bomb. Israel may whimp out also,
but I don't think so, they have too much to lose, like their country, Israel. But, they don't have enough military might, to do the job correctlly, and the U.S doesn't have the wisdom to do the job right, they are not even considering taking out the Iranian oil and gas fields. Whithout the Iranian oil and gas fields, Iran will be out of business for a long time. Total destruction is the correct war plan, so the U.S war planners don't have a clue. Fire the 10,000 lawyers at the Pentagon, give them a rifle and send them to the front lines of the moslem war.

DeepDarkOpps

"we" must outlaw Nuclear weapons?

Err...who is 'we'?

I assure you healthwatcher... there are many 'non' we out there who have them...or want them.. and will stop at nothing to get them.

Then..'they' will deal with 'we' in terms of a chunk of holy book which supports their claim that "The world and all that is in it belongs (not to 'we') to Allah and his messenger"

There is a vid on youtube of a Mullah calling for:
-Biological
-Chemical
-Bacterial

attacks on the west so that 'Allah is the only God, and Mohammad is his messenger'
He clearly states.. they want to rule the WORLD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsYKjHJktQ&NR=1

If you goto 3m08s point...you can see it for yourself mate.

As I've often tried to make the point.... such people..such speeches, are not 'myths' nor are they just rhetoric....they bloody mean business....
Its time we did also.

While I wholeheartedley agree with the sentiments raised in this article I am pessimistic that global leaders will actually make the commitment to eradicating nuclear weapons. We are still governed and influenced by notions of nuclear (or mutual) deterrence and the Cold War (even though some of the players have changed). Not to mention the interests of business and money and the pursuit of power.

Bottom line is you cannot always trust the people who govern. History has showed that human life often plays a poor second to these other interests.

The nuclear race started around World War 2 when intelligence revealed Hitler had access to the science of nuclear weaponry and then it was on for the US/Europe to gain the upper hand. Anti-nuclear campaigners at the time (including some of the scientists that were involved in the first series of nuclear testing in the US) were up against the fear that Hitler would be in possession of a catastrophic weapon and had the 'madness' to use it. The irony in that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not lost.

The US and French governments were both negligent when it came to nuclear testing both in around the Bikini Atoll, Muroroa and in New Mexico where the first tests revealed horrific medical consequences to the people living in the valleys downwind and to soldiers who were there to guard the facilities. The population was not warned that nuclear testing was to take place near their homes.

Japanese tuna fisherman, New Mexico residents and other inhabitants of the these test sites were all affected terribly by the fallout and most died within six months.

The US and French governments acted criminally and negligently and given our recent track record, it does not bode well for nuclear disarmament mores the pity.