THE frightening stand-off between the North Korean and American leaders is surely a timely reminder that the widespread complacency about nuclear weapons is a denial of reality.
The old warning about the risks of’miscalculation or madness being a trigger for the start of a nuclear conflict looks realistic in the North Korean/United States context.
Apart from accident, a pre-emptive strike was always the most realistic scenario for a nuclear exchange. Country A thinks Country B is highly likely to launch an attack and therefore must strike first while Country B thinks it must threaten to use its weapons to prevent an attack.
Add to this the “madness” factor. We have two unstable leaders pushing their rhetoric to the point from which it is difficult to retreat. Are there sufficient restraining forces around them? We might not know until it is too late.
The First World War was triggered by an assassination in Serbia but, behind it, was a major build-up of weapons and imperial rivalry. We are in a period with a massive accumulation of killing power and extensive interventionist wars. One miscalculation could set off an irreversible train. We in Scotland cannot forget that, 30 miles from Glasgow, we have the biggest nuclear target in Western Europe.
Isobel Lindsay,
9 Knocklea Place,
Biggar.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here