An opinion by By Gardner Molloy, the canny mason
We live in a weaponised world where peace is supposedly assured by the crazy notion of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). You can either buy into that concept or not.
To me it seems like primitive lunacy and a complete waste of resources. Most people insist I am being naive and seem to accept this perilous ’status quo’ as a necessary strategy.
If that’s the case then surely logic dictates that the reason the Middle East is currently the most unstable region of the world is simply because of an imbalance. One major power in the region has nuclear weapons and the other does not. It would follow that to promote peace and stability in the area both sides need similar capabilities. No single state would then be able to act disproportionately or with impunity.
My conscience will not allow me to conceive of a world with more weapons rather than less, so I suggest that the fastest and most efficient method to restore some balance would be for other nations (us included) to give Iran some of our excess nuclear arsenal. It’s not like there is any shortage of destructive capacity.
You could accuse me of being flippant, but I’m actually deadly serious. As a planet facing far greater existential threat than territorial squabbling we simply cannot afford the chaos of warfare and its consequences.
All my life a tense armed international standoff, and the evolution of ever more sophisticated methods of attack and counterattack, has masqueraded as peace. We were sold a lie. The logic behind this, we were told, was an irreconcilable ideological dispute between capitalism and communism.
The collapse of the Soviet Union exposed this for the fallacy it was.
It was only ever about power, influence and resources. History shows us that these conflicts are essentially unwinnable, and they sow the seeds of resentment that inevitably germinate yet another cycle of killing and chaos. This is the politics of the playground, where the bully gets to set the rules. Surely we have the capacity to operate in a more mature manner by now?
Diplomacy is the only currency of peace and it is not measured in dollars, but respect, tolerance and compassion.
At its heart this current outbreak of violence seems to centre on a science and technology issue. Can one nation really say to another that they cannot develop a nuclear program of any kind? An energy technology that has been exploited internationally for three quarters of a century.
Nuclear generated electricity will probably have to do some of the heavy lifting, given our delays in adopting non fossil fuel sources of energy for the future.
Again, personally, given the long term problems of waste disposal and costs of production I am not an advocate of nuclear power. But much of the UK’s base load to the grid is supplied by nuclear and, in the short term, it does seem to have a much better carbon footprint.
These decisions are not mine, or any other individuals to make. It must remain the preserve of the government of each country to direct its own energy strategy.