tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7643299082548846862024-02-20T18:41:05.725-08:00Some facts about Nuclear Weapons that you should knowJohn Jappyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04537551777982612769noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-764329908254884686.post-7824366281937432232013-07-20T07:21:00.001-07:002013-08-20T08:09:33.549-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">24 hours each day, 365 days each year, there is at
least one British nuclear submarine concealed at sea, armed with 48 nuclear
warheads. The Trident home base is at
Faslane on the Clyde. The arsenal of the Trident fleet is equivalent to 1000 Hiroshima
bombs.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It has been estimated that should Trident be fired
by design or accident some 40 million people would die.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Simply to keep the Trident submarine fleet afloat
costs the British taxpayer around £2.5 billion per year. </span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The word “deterrence” has no meaning in military
strategy, “nuclear deterrence” is a
political statement.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Papers released in 2001 show that the British
military establishment have detailed plans for a first strike nuclear
attack; NATO has persistently refused to sign a “no first use”
clause. An initiative taken as recently as 1998 by the German Government
fell on deaf ears. A leading NATO document reads “nuclear weapons
must be used with discrimination and
precision”. The Westminster Government has stated that in the event of hostilities breaking out, our nuclear fleet would be assigned to NATO – so much for our so-called “independent nuclear deterrent”.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite the end of the Cold War, Britain’s stock
of nuclear missiles continues to grow,
from 1990 to 1998 the total grew from 96 Polaris warheads to 180 Trident missiles.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p>A</o:p>ll of Britain’s Cold War nuclear weapons are kept
in a secret location a mere 60 miles from Glasgow. No other country would harbour such an
arsenal so close to a densely populated area.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are today, around 35,000 nuclear weapons in
the world. At least 5,000 of these are
on a state of alert – ready to be launched in 15 mins.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The USA has currently 150 B61 nuclear bombers
on standby, within bases in Belgium, Germany (3), Italy (2), The Netherlands,
Turkey and the UK, ready to be loaded for take-off in 30 minutes. </span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In July 1996, the International Court of Justice,
the highest court in the world, ruled that the threat or use of nuclear weapons
would be contrary to international law.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This argument, that Trident was illegal, was
successfully used by three protestors from Trident Ploughshares in their
defence at Greenock Sheriff Court.</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Trident is a criminal weapon of mass destruction
which is in Scotland without the approval or consensus of the Scottish
people. Even before the Scottish National Party won an overall majority at Holyrood, the majority of MSPs were opposed to Trident renewal. An Independent Scotland would make removal of Trident a top priority.</span></li>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> See also: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/04537551777982612769">More blogs by John Jappy</a></span></div>
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