A former commander of British nuclear weapons has written an open letter to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in support of his anti-Trident stance, in which he debunked common arguments used in defense of nukes.<\/p>\n
Commander Robert Green, a retired Royal Navy officer, flew Buccaneer nuclear strike aircraft and helicopters equipped with nuclear depth-bombs during the Cold War. Now he is calling for the UK to ends its nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to Corbyn \u2014 who caused a stir in the UK when he said he would never \u201cpush the button<\/em>\u201d if elected prime minister \u2014 the former pilot argues Trident is \u201cmilitarily irrational and not credible.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Green debunks several commonly held arguments in favor of the UK retaining its nuclear deterrent, including the idea that Trident nuclear missiles are under British control. In reality Britain relies heavily on US military infrastructure.<\/p>\n He quotes the late Sir Michael Quinlan, a former defense strategist in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), as having said: \u201cEvery British government has needed to find intellectual clothing for what has always been a gut decision never to allow France to be the sole European nuclear power<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Green goes on to critique Quinlan\u2019s thinking given that Britain\u2019s nuclear arsenal is reliant on US technology.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen weighed against the gravity of the implications, how rational and responsible is this? Besides, was not this decision rendered hollow once the \u2018independent British deterrent\u2019 came to depend upon a US-leased missile system, US software in the fire control system, US targeting data and satellite communications? This trumps any puerile \u2018Little Englander\u2019 political posturing about the French.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n He goes on to argue the UK should scrap Trident in favor of a more \u201ctangible, useful and credible<\/em>\u201d defense diplomacy.<\/p>\n Green also dismantles the \u201cmacho<\/em>\u201d notion that the prime minister would have to \u201cpress the button<\/em>\u201d in the event of a nuclear war.<\/p>\n \u201cThat dirty work is delegated to the Commanding Officer of the deployed Trident submarine. And back when I was in a nuclear crew of a Buccaneer strike jet or Sea King anti-submarine helicopter, we were given that dreadful, suicidal responsibility,<\/em>\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current UK political leadership\u2019s threat to use UK Trident therefore requires the four submarine crews to be prepared to commit nuclear terrorism, risking them being branded as guilty of the Nazi defense against war crimes<\/em>,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Green cites three examples in the 20th century where the world came close to nuclear war, thereby dismissing the argument that nuclear deterrence prevents war and provides stability between states.<\/p>\n In one example, the Exercise Able Archer miscalculation of 1983, nuclear war was narrowly avoided when Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov correctly dismissed early warning signs that indicated a US missile attack on Russia.<\/p>\n Green argues that if the UK were to abandon its nuclear weapons it could claim it was \u201cin line with its commitment under [Non-Proliferation Treaty] NPT Article 6\u201d<\/em> \u2014 a move that would give Britain the chance to be a \u201cforce for good in the world<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe UK was the third state to detonate a nuclear weapon, and is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (known as the P5). British anti-nuclear breakout, therefore, would be a sensational game-changer<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A former commander of British nuclear weapons has written an open letter to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in support of his anti-Trident stance, in which he debunked common arguments used in defense of nukes. Commander Robert Green, a retired Royal Navy officer, flew Buccaneer nuclear strike aircraft and helicopters equipped with nuclear depth-bombs during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-199344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}