Steve Shaw - 18 Jul 16 - 07:09 PM

1: "Israel has the bomb but that has not deterred attacks on Israel from multiple quarters. Go on, tell me why Israel didn't nuke Gaza or Lebanon, and please don't say it was because Israel is the nice guy."

I would imagine that Israel has never ever used it's nuclear weapons because it has never needed to. The pan-Arabic movement of Nasser no longer exists and Israel is no longer confronted by nation states calling for its destruction (It has been 43 now since Israel was attacked by an enemy that represented a nation state).

2: "Pakistan has the bomb but it hasn't prevented Indian aggression or US drones from killing people on their turf."

Trust you to get the shoe on the wrong foot Shaw. What Indian aggression? Four times in the past Pakistan attacked India, there have been no such attacks since both acquired nuclear weapons. The Government of Pakistan is incapable of enforcing the rule of law and order in either the NWFP or in the FATA along it's border with Afghanistan, "allied" to the US effort to prevent attacks from inside these areas hitting targets in Afghanistan why would Pakistani nuclear weapons enter the equation.

3: "We have the bomb but it didn't deter Argentina from occupying our sovereign territory.

Most certainly did in 1977. In 1982 the Argentine invasion took the UK Government by surprise, or so we are led to believe. I personally know that Captain Nick Barker RN who was in command of the Antarctic Patrol Ship HMS Endurance had been supplying the powers that be in the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office with intelligence of Argentina's intentions for at least a year before the event.

At present it is the threat that one of our SSNs is allocated to the area that provides the greatest deterrent to any military action by the Argentines.

4: "The US has the bomb but it didn't deter 9-11."
Nor would I expect it to, but what it has deterred is what the USA identified as the greatest threat to its national security in the wake of the attacks on the 11th September 2001:

An international terrorist organisation, linking up with a "rogue" State hostile to the USA that either possesses WMD or has the technical ability to produce or procure WMD, which results in an "anonymous" asymmetric attack on the USA using WMD.

Subsequent US actions taken after 9/11 and US nuclear weapons did succeed in deterring any state from acting in the role of "rogue" state to any international terrorist organisation in the scenario outlined above. Evidence to substantiate that assertion?

Libya - unilaterally renounced its WMD programmes including a secret nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea - momentarily halted its nuclear weapons programme while GWB was in office.
Iran - was forced to halt its nuclear weapons programme when the US found out about the undeclared uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qum.
Syria - Secret nuclear weapons programme halted and destroyed.
Pakistan - Illegal nuclear weapons proliferation network run by Dr A.Q.Khan exposed and shut down

5: "Over 200 countries do not have the bomb and the vast majority of them have not been attacked during the nuclear age."

Are you sure about that? From your list of 200 (The UN has only 193 member states including all those with nuclear weapons, so the following does not include those countries that you have obviously invented) take away those whose security is guaranteed by being part of an alliance that has as one of its partners a nuclear power. then go through the list again and you will be astounded at the number who have been involved in some form of conflict or another since 1945.


6: the Stones were better than the Beatles

I thought everybody knew that.

7: "The best deterrent by far is to have a non-aggressive, non-interfering foreign policy."

Really? What happens when another nation adopts an interfering and aggressive foreign policy towards you? Your statement is complete and utter rubbish.

8: The modus operandi of the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS is to pop up, do something and then get hammered. That has been their track record so far.