July 7: Nuclear weapons’ only role is to keep UK at the top table

I BELIEVE that the letter from Mr Bromby of Hull (The Yorkshire Post, July 3) was placed in the wrong section. I don’t think his letter was talking about our nuclear deterrent, or the terrorist threat that we all face today. I think it was about politicians causing the deaths of innocent people by proxy, by their political decisions.

Given that our nuclear submarine fleet can carry a range of weapons, including Trident, Tomahawk cruise missiles and Tigerfish conventional torpedoes, they do provide the United Kingdom with a range of options for killing people we don’t like.

Whether the country should maintain a nuclear deterrent is a different question.

Being nuclear means that we can sit on the world top table, as one of the big boys.

I have said previously 
that we are still trying to punch above our weight in the world today and if having nuclear weapons gives us the right to sit with the USA, Russia, India, France, Israel, Pakistan and China, then let’s get rid of 
them.

If being nuclear means we have the technology for cleaner power supply and chemical and medical research, then perhaps we should keep it.

What would we do with the jobs in the nuclear industry, including those in Scotland if we got rid of Trident?

Accepting the fact that we aren’t going to “nuke” Islamic State, or Bobo Haram, the only way to rid ourselves of such terrorists is to shoot them, and to remove their recruitment incentives, like poverty, prejudice and unequal rights (Israel take note).

We need to remove any vested interests in other countries too – like Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others.

Finally, we need to ensure that such countries have equal rights for women.

They, more than men, have justifiable cause to resent the way that they are treated in today’s world and to demand equality.

From: Raymond Shaw, Elland.

READING that our Government is now considering tougher action against the Islamic extremists (The Yorkshire Post, July 3), may I respectfully suggest the following. Combine, with our European allies, a recruitment campaign among our joint considerable Muslim proportion of our population to raise and finance an army to confront these people, so avoiding any suggestion of ethnic or religious bias. We should at least find out who our enemies are.