{"id":1206,"date":"2016-02-22T01:20:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2016-02-22T02:04:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T02:04:05","slug":"trident-is-owned-by-banksters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html","title":{"rendered":"Trident is owned by banksters"},"content":{"rendered":"

I need to say Steve Topple’s article on Trident is excellent<\/a> and I recommend reading it. I haven’t written any op-eds on the Trident missile renewal debate in the UK, but if I allowed myself,\u00a0it couldn’t compete with Steve Topple’s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve covers some aspects of the debate that just haven’t been heard<\/a>, lamentably, and explains that UK-based\u00a0banks cynically facilitate investment into both the UK’s nuclear arsenal and the Russian arsenal. In effect, Trident is owned by banksters.<\/p>\n

Unlike Steve’s article, most\u00a0of\u00a0the debate on the issue focuses on morals, or whether the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent is really “independent” or in fact Trident is owned by the faraway authorities in the US to use this country as a sacrificial\u00a0pawn\u00a0in their own defence strategy.<\/p>\n

My own criticism of Trident is a little less detailed and expertly than Steve Topple’s. I just find it absurd that small countries with questionable importance need to have vast nuclear weapon deterrents. In my view, these systems make small countries\u00a0a target of endless criticism, distrust\u00a0and ultimately nukes in the first place rather than deterring anyone. We become a prime target for terrorist organisations and foreign powers by pointing nuclear weapons at people and trying to be a leading military power, when this is simply unnecessary. At fault are warmongers whose greatest fear is not that we will be nuked, but that we won’t be able to nuke people.<\/p>\n

Who do small countries like Israel and the UK think they are kidding with their nuclear “deterrent”? Clearly, as small countries, they have no hope of survival in a nuclear war and no possible rationale for a “first strike”. The idea of them threatening anyone with a nuclear war is absolutely crazy. A massive country like Russia would endure tremendous damage from a nuclear attack, but not total extinction. A country as vast as theirs could still hide a lot of fighting potential and evacuate a lot of people even in the most extreme war scenario. But the UK would be destroyed absolutely.<\/p>\n

The very existence of the British people would end within a few minutes in the event of a nuclear war with Russia. As such a small country, there would be nowhere to run. Ports would be destroyed, airports smashed, cities reduced to ashes, the very land contaminated with lethal doses of radiation, all food radioactive, the already miserable torrents of rain we walk through would become poison to all that moved on this island. Even the people who managed to creep away into deep, dark hiding places would emerge only to die as soon as they ate or drank anything. It is likely that almost all the animals living in Britain would also perish as a result of the radiation and poisoned water. Is this what we’re telling the Russians we are prepared to do to ourselves?<\/p>\n

Everything bigger than the\u00a0rats\u00a0would be dead. Meanwhile, some millions of Russians living in remote regions might\u00a0still be alive\u00a0and well, drinking water that was unaffected by the nuclear fallout, eating food not contaminated by radioactive dust and debris. There might\u00a0even be divisions of\u00a0Russian troops still\u00a0alive\u00a0to fly out from somewhere in\u00a0Siberia’s vast territory\u00a0and plant their flag on the smoldering heap left of London. Maybe not the great victory over “aggression” Britain’s\u00a0leaders may\u00a0have had in mind.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0politicians should not be acting smug about what\u00a0they’ll do to\u00a0Russia in a nuclear war. They should be very scared about what Russia would\u00a0do to them, and the rest of us including all the innocent animals unfortunate enough to to be born\u00a0on a crazy\u00a0island run\u00a0by crazy nuke-waving warmongers and loons. How can anyone vote for those people?<\/p>\n

\"hjb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I need to say Steve Topple’s article on Trident is excellent and I recommend reading it. I haven’t written any op-eds on the Trident missile renewal debate in the UK, but if I allowed myself,\u00a0it couldn’t compete with Steve Topple’s. Steve covers some aspects of the debate that just haven’t been heard, lamentably, and explains…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,71,63,72,66,56,69],"tags":[1403,1402,229,1279,1401,1486],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conflict-2","category-conflict-resolution","category-futurism-2","category-international-relations","category-politics-2","category-uk","category-violence","tag-defence","tag-nuclear-war","tag-russia","tag-steve-topple","tag-trident","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nTrident is owned by banksters - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Steve Topple's op-ed, Trident is owned by banksters. My own dread is that we're a crazy island run by crazy nuke-waving warmongers and loons.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trident is owned by banksters - L'Ordre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to Steve Topple's op-ed, Trident is owned by banksters. 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My own dread is that we're a crazy island run by crazy nuke-waving warmongers and loons.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2015\/10\/hjb-signature-new-opaque-2.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/files\/2015\/10\/hjb-signature-new-opaque-2.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/02\/trident-is-owned-by-banksters.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trident is owned by banksters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/","name":"L'Ordre","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Harry Bentham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/#\/schema\/person\/576f5919c442d93e18909ed47628846e","name":"Harry J. 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