[JohnW]

You're right of course Cashman, no-one should have nuclear weapons, however, they are a fact of life and they are not going away, so that is not even a option worth considering. No-one will ever trust the other countries in the world enough to disarm competely. So, they are here to stay and we have to learn to live with that. Also, I have never fully understood how countries who have nuclear weapons consider they have the right to tell smaller countries that they can't develop them. Can you imagine when the longbow was invented one lot saying to the other lot, "Hey, WE invented the longbow, you lot can't come in to battle and use them against US." How ridiculous. Mr. Churchill tried this kind of tack with America when the Yanks were building up their navy and it looked as if they would eventually have more ships than the Brits. Churchill told them they shouldn't do that, that the British navy needed to be the most powerful in the world because we had a Commonwealth to service. Yea! Like that worked!!

So, I really don't see how we can stop countries building them, we just have to have many more and better ones, which, of course, we do. We also need to ensure that our defences against their, less sofisticated, weaponry is adequate. That is the only deterrent against them using their bombs. I have to say, it would appear that the total destruction of the earth gets nearer with every passing year. As long as there are men on earth, you can bet your life there'll be trouble.