In our times when rogue states bristling in their apocalyptic beards, like Iran, could produce stealthily nuclear weapons, to set up an International Commission for nuclear disarmament, as Prime Minister Rudd proposes to do, is the ultimate stupidity that any one could suggest. And in the aftermath of 9/11, the magnitude of such stupidity takes astronomical dimensions. Just imagine that countries such as America, Britain, France, and especially, Israel, which could be the targets of a nuclear attack by an Islamist state or by proxies of the latter, would even consider their nuclear disarmament.

Rudd’s proposal limpidly illustrates that Australia does not have a statesman at the helm but a political dilettante and a populist to boot who is more concerned to ingratiate himself with the celestial wishes of its liberal minded constituency than to deal with geopolitical realities.

Moreover, what is rather surprising and amusing is to see that Gareth Evans is willing to underwrite such political buffoonery by accepting the chair of the International Commission for nuclear disarmament. It seems that his Tasmanian “Biggles” days are not over.

http://kotzabasis4.wordpress.com

If the hearts of people are callous enough to murder their unborn babies we have no hope of preventing war. I'm with Gibo on this one.

The author goes from the horror of nuclear weapons to recommending the elimination of all things nuclear.

This will eliminate all nuclear energy to stop climate change, and all nuclear medicine to fight cancer etc.

What then is the answer to conventional conflict (which kills many more) the shutting down of all factories?

Grow up. Nuclear energy production from modern reactors produces no fissible material.

Actually Shadow Minister commercial reactors used in electricity production produce no WEAPONS GRADE fissible material.

Nuclear reactors can and do produce fissible material. Some designs, the fast breeder reactors, produce more fissible material than they consume.

But, for the rest, I agree with you.

Chris Shaw

Your argument against the possession of nuclear weapons is much more practical and effective than the author's high ideals and dooms day projections.

In fact Gates recently sacked the head and deputy head of the US Air Force after one too many close calls - the main one being a B-52 crew flying across the US ignorant that they were carrying nuclear armed missiles.

The fewer the number of nuclear weapons and the lower the explosive yield the better (hopefully). Fewer and lower is actually happening amongst the US, Russia and to some extent France. This has occurred partly due to disarmament negotiations between nuclear states but, I suspect, primarily due to the increasing accuracy of nuclear missiles.

For example nuclear missiles 40 years ago were so inaccurate that they needed to be very big (say equivalent to 1,000,000 tons of TNT) to be sure of destroying their assigned target. Today a target - say an underground bunker - can be destroyed by a weapon equivalent to 500 tons of TNT as it can penetrate precisely on top of the bunker (give or take 10 metres). Vastly fewer people living near the bunker would be killed. Still this is a huge tragedy and little consolation.

The "fewer civilian casualties" slogan may in fact encourage the use of nuclear weapons (say) against Iran. Only some in the US and Israel know how nukes fit into their various attack Iran plans.

I think if idealists combine idealistic prose with an indication they know a little about nuclear weapons technology and use they'll persuade many more people.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

stevenlmeyer

I should be more precise, Modern light water reactors produce no net plutonium.

Also from the Jan 27 edition

How far can a nuclear watchdog's remit to protect human health extend? That's the question raised by the sacking last week of Linda Keen, head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

In November last year, Keen ordered the shutdown of a nuclear reactor at Chalk River, 200 kilometres from Ottawa, after maintenance checks uncovered a safety breach. The reactor is also the world's largest single supplier of medical isotopes, used in diagnostic tests for conditions such as cancer and heart disease, and the closure caused a worldwide shortage. On 11 December, the government overruled Keen's decision.

The exact grounds for Keen's removal are not clear, but Gary Lunn, Canada's natural resources minister, says she "was prepared to put people's lives at risk".

I often think that the greens in being driven by an almost religious fervour convieniently forget that nuclear science and medicine has saved many more people than have been lost from all the accidents and explosions incl Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Nuclear weapons are bad, but the rest of it is a tool.