This Trident thing...

[andygates]

Please explain to me just who we're going to nuke?

For extra credit, compare to insurance against badger attack: £1000 premium, and we promise to gas the one wot bit you.  Explain how Trident offers a substantially more well-priced policy against a more credible threat.

Please explain to me just why this is anything more than reluctance to leave the Big Swinging Dicks Club?

Comments

Re: An armed society is a polite society

[andygates.livejournal.com]

It's credible without the citation. People are dumb / mendacious / impulsive. The more weapons, and the bigger the weapons, the greater the consequences of any dumbness, mendacity or impulse (viz the man-on-the-street's 9/12 "glass Mecca!" rants from the USA).

This risk is independent of any deterrent effect.

A weak deterrent and a high risk combine to make the possession of a deterrent more dangerous than not having it. Especially if you could have spent the billions on something more useful.