Doug Maughan (Letters, December 6) makes the most convoluted justification for Trident I have heard.
The logic seems to be that because a group of five nations have the biggest club/ machete/ bomb this gives them the moral authority to keep these horrific weapons and decide the fate of the whole world. This structure brought the world to the very edge of total destruction when, during the Cuban crisis, if the commander of the Soviet fleet had not over-ruled the captain of one of his nuclear submarines who, believing he was under attack, was about to launch his nuclear missiles at mainland USA, we would all have seen the proof of the concept of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).
The UN Security Council showed its "burden of responsibility" in its reaction to civil war in Syria. Self-interest among the various members meant that the Security Council did nothing as people died. Rwanda was a dreadful slaughter of innocents about which the Security Council did nothing. People around the world have been killed by a wide variety of weapons, including chemical and biological weapons and all the nuclear warheads available made no difference.
I too have visited sites of man's inhumanity to man but unlike Doug Maughan's politician's view of the world which thinks strength is status I admire and give my wholehearted support to anyone and everyone who is trying to remove this most heinous of all weapons which has the sole utility of murdering millions of civilians firstly from Scottish soil and hopefully eventually from all countries.
The only fit place for nuclear arsenals is the dustbin of history.
David Stubley,
22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.
DOUG Maughan is wrong to suggest that the SNP is trying to shirk its responsibilities. The independence White Paper sets out a clear path to disarmament, with Trident removed from Scotland by 2020 and a constitution which includes an explicit ban on nuclear weapons. This would fulfil our responsibility to tackle the global problem of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Maughan is wrong if he thinks the Non Proliferation Treaty permits the United Kingdom to retain the bomb in perpetuity.
The majority of nations in the world who don't have nuclear weapons only endorsed the treaty because the five nuclear weapon states promised they would make concrete efforts to achieve disarmament.
Contrary to what Mr Maughan suggests, the use of Trident, in any conceivable scenario, would be illegal. A single Trident nuclear warhead would cause death and destruction over a wide area and kill many thousands of civilians. Any use of Trident would be a clear breach of international humanitarian law.
Mr Maughan points out that many people have been killed in conventional conflict around the world. However, he fails to realise that a nuclear-free independent Scotland would be better placed to make a meaningful contribution to United Nations peacekeeping operations. We would be able to model our armed forces for conflict resolution, rather than for threatening mass destruction.
John Ainslie,
Co-ordinator,
Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
77 Southpark Avenue,
Glasgow.
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