Of course Tilman is right. No one seriously disputes that. What everyone is criticising or disputing though are the practicalities of implementing a meaningful control. No one Nation is going to give up a weapon at its disposal that has the most intimidating attributes while-ever there is the slightest chance of using it in a justifiable cause.

So the only way to accomplish what Tilman proposes is to remove the justifiable cause in the equation. Make war itself a crime against humanity. Any and every war. There should be no more justification for war. War, by which it suddenly becomes acceptable to kill men, women and children in uncontrolled numbers, either directly or as so called “collateral damage”, is an institution that has outlived its usefulness. There is no longer any meaningful application for it in today’s society. It belongs to an age when Nations still believed they could live in secure physical and financial isolation. When might meant dominance. When resources were limitless and the sea and air inexhaustible.

We still perpetuate the myth of war as a noble institution by handing out medals to people (so-called heros) for killing other people in a cause that was justified by “war”. We set up memorials, we celebrate war anniversaries. That is how we can stop it. We have to change; society has to change. Declare everyone who kills another human being a war-criminal, treat them as the murderers they really are, and the need (and the justification) for atomic weapons will disappear, along with all the other horrible weapons of war

Outlaw nucs ? Who is going to do this, the U.N ? This is one of the stupidest ideas posed by the left, but only one of the stupidest, all the leftist ideas are stupid. The lefts ideas are utopian, devoid of
reason and logic and common sense. The left doesn't care about real world consequences, only that their intentions are noble. That makes them feel good about themselves, that is what matters to the left.

DeepDarkOpps

DeepDarkOpps, I've seen a a few of your posts and haven't dignified them with a response, but I've gotta say, that comment, and others you've made, come across looking pretty damn dodgy.

You've advocated the total destruction of middle eastern nations. No discussion of the morality of wiping out an entire people, or of the fact that plenty of people are moderates.
Just an extreme right-wing holocaust solution.

You also make the rookie mistake of tarring an entire political ideology with one brush. 'The left?' who the hell are you talking about?

You talk as if all leftists share the same goal. That's just bull.

Are you talking about centre leftists, like Rudd (for whom a case could be made that he's a right wing leader) or are you talking about fringe leftist groups, socialist alliances, communists, the Greens or certain factions in the ALP? They've all got totally different stances, and when I hear people berating 'the left' or 'the right' it just seems plain stupid. Honestly, get a sense of perspective.
There was an interesting discussion on how dumb tarring entire political ideologies with a single brush really is:
"What the left believes"

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=1381

I put it to you, you've got no idea what the 'left' believes. You've described what some leftists believe, sure. The same ignorance can be applied to some members of 'the right.'

As for the 'DeepDarkOpps' name, to be brutally honest, it sounds like you're trying to sound like some kind of intelligence insider, but your simplistic one-sided posts say otherwise.

TurnRightThenLeft

I agree with your views. Left and Right are misleading labels which vary with the subject at hand.

The assumption that Left = wooly headed peaceniks falls down. China and Russia were hard left when they undertook crash programs to build nuclear reactors for electrical power and nuclear weapons for national defence.

I see Iraq as mainly being about the US hoarding Iraqi oil which would classify me as “Left” but my opinions on nuclear weapons may place me on the Right.

As to the nickname “DeepDarkOpps” I’d say wannabe is more likely. However I’ve bumped into a few military of that type who do see things in Black and White, Left and Right.

They are not trained to think about political subtleties and those that do are often weeded out of such “Opps”.

Pete

We all know who the left are. The whacko enviromentalists, the global warming alarmists, the college professors who teach womans studies, gay studies, cultural equivalence, black studies and all the other nonsense that makes you come out of college stupider then when you went in, qualified only to teach in college, what has no market value. The left are the people who major in such nonsense. You can actually go thru an Ivy league university without having to take an American History course, a civics course or plenty of other relevent courses needed to understand what American Exceptionalism is all about. College is a pretty bad investment, unless you major in the hard sciences, then you will learn something and get a good education, but the social sciences are mostly a waste of time, unless your goal is to be a far out leftist, detached from the real world.

A mind is a terrible thing to lose, just go to college and study the social sciences and you will learn, first hand.

DeepDarkOpps

DeeprkOpps

Hmmm. You appear to be writing within American terms of reference. From which US state do you hale from please.

Pete