Originally Posted by
Stavros
Corbyn has been opposed to nuclear weapons for most of his adult life, and is not about to change. Defence was considered a major weakness for Labour during the Thatcher years, but with the end of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war receding it ceased to be a major issue, where 'security' in relation to terrorism at home or abroad has taken a higher profile. Killing al-Baghdadi might be a headline in the news but would not deal with the support Daesh has in Iraq even if a lot of it is based in the mostly Sunni areas of Iraq and among former Ba'ath party/Saddam loyalists and ex-militay who may have used Daesh for their own purposes.
The fear now is not of rogue states using nuclear weapons, it is debatable if even North Korea is a 'rogue state'. The creation of a 'dirty bomb' has been discussed for decades but so far nobody has been able to make or use one, whereas chemical weapons, illegal in international law since 1928 have been used to kill people by Iraq, Israel and Syria. In fact the fear is that the USA is now most likely to use nuclear weapons, depending on who makes the decision. The strikes in Syria were not ordered or even agreed to by the President who has farmed out these decisions to the military, his indifference to military matters and the fact he spends most of his time playing golf at tax-payer's expense while 'doing deals' with foreign governments to extend his private business interests across the world means the military are now free to choose whom to strike without the President looking over their shoulders.
Were North Korea to sink a US vessel as it has threatened to do, there will be retaliation but one wonders of what kind, where, and to what end? On the other hand, the US operation in the Yemen that led to the death of Ryan Owens was ill-prepared, poorly run and produced nothing of importance, other than an opportunity for the golfer-in-chief to gloat over a man's death as if it proved his Presidency was robust and aggressive where Obama's was passive and ineffectual. In fact, given the way things are going maybe we should entertain the thought that if there is a 'rogue state' with nuclear weapons, it is the USA.