WHILE defenders of Israel’s conduct in Gaza repeat the mantra “Israel has the right to defend itself” as a self-evident truism, critics are not slow in responding that war is not merely a competition in killing, there are rules governing conflict. For example, you may not rape, torture, kill prisoners of war, or target civilians – even when such action is perceived as bringing victory nearer (the Hiroshima Fallacy). The wilful targeting of enemy civilians contravenes the sacrosanct principle of non-combatant immunity.

However, we in the UK are blind to our own flagrant violation of precisely the same laws, but on an unimaginably greater scale than Israel. The deployment of weapons of mass destruction in the policy known as CASD (continuous at-sea deterrence) whereby hydrogen bombs (ie nuclear missiles) are deployed in full alert 24/7, dwarfs any crime committed by Israel.

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Our threat to use nuclear weapons violates international law, and specifically the Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) agreed by 122 countries in July 2019. This was the first legally binding international agreement to specifically prohibit nuclear weapons.

It is vital to realise that this is a matter of compulsory law – jus cogens. That means it is a peremptory norm from which there is no derogation (like piracy, genocide, enslavement, or FGM), as opposed to customary law, where parties have make a mutual agreement. I make this point in response to the obvious question – what do we do if this law is simply ignored by rogue states? The answer is that nuclear weapons are delegitimised, and those who have them will be stigmatised. They may perversely persist, but their criminality will be blatant and indisputable.

This ban is not an innovation – nuclear weapons have always been illegal and genocide always been criminal. It’s just that while other means of killing people have been specifically outlawed (biological weapons 1972, chemical weapons 1993, land mines 1997, cluster munitions 2008), consideration of nuclear weapons has been avoided.

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It is vital to grasp that the TPNW is unique. It is called the “Charter of the Victims” (ie you and me) because it is focused on the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, and does not get side-tracked into discussing “deterrence”, or the imagined advantages of nuclear weapons. Previous agreements were deals among the members of the exclusive Big Boys’ Nuclear Club. They argued about numbers and stockpiles, but took no cognisance of the human beings involved. In fact, the realities of consequential human suffering were deliberately ignored.

The assumption was that nuclear weapons were an asset, that their possession conferred status and prestige. The devastating effects of their use on human beings and the environment were disregarded. Radiation is especially lethal to reproductive organs and therefore women and the unborn are particularly susceptible to harm, so this is a major feminist issue.

It is depressing to observe that, in rehearsing the various arguments for Scottish independence, this, the most powerful and irrefutable of all, is seldom mentioned. Even among the most dedicated supporters of independence, the “nuclear issue” is treated as a sort of afterthought.

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Because we don’t want to talk about the Bomb any more. It’s all so passé, so sixties. And my granny used to march in the old days of the Cold War, back when we all lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation. But it has all changed now, hasn’t it?

When the Bureau of Atomic Scientists say that the danger of nuclear war is greater now than at any time in the past, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, they’re not being serious, are they?

So let’s change the channel and watch something else, right?

When human extermination became the official policy of the nuclear states, the finest brains in the world reacted with incredulous horror. Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell published the Peace Manifesto in 1955, where they said: “Remember your humanity and forget the rest”. Their anguished plea was ignored, and we had the collective lunacy of the Cold War; trillions of dollars was wasted on weapons, while millions perished through hunger and disease. And we suffered endless proxy wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, Central America to Africa. We came within seconds (literally) of global suicide on several occasion.

And today the Gadarene race to extinction grows ever more intense. We make unimaginable advances in the technology of killing; hypersonic aircraft, smart drones, AI etc. all promise new and undreamed of toys to feed our necrophilous idolatry.

When I stand with the handful of Catholic Workers at the South Gate of Faslane, a valiant but pathetic bunch on our monthly vigil, I am inexpressibly saddened to consider that I live in a society which has degenerated to accepting the unspeakable horror of nuclear extermination.

Independence is the only way to escape this nightmare, but only if we remain loyal in our opposition to all nuclear terrorism.

Brian Quail
Glasgow