I really do get muddled by the morality of humanity at the moment.

And isn't Trident intended as a deterrent against aggression from a country? Are we not being told daily it's terrorism by small groups we should be fearing? Should I just be frightened of everything?

Please explain, dear leaders!

Short answer to the main question - which means I couldn't be a successful politician.

As to the other question .. I think, yes, they want us to be afraid of everything. Although, mostly, I'm afraid of this government.

The simple answer is because Iran won't kow-tow to the Yanks.

When Saddam did - he was actually supplied by the USA, but as soon as he failed to be a puppet, he became "evil" !

There is the old saying

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

Unfortunately, they never take note of Grandpa's rider

"But when the common enemy is gone there's nothing to stop your current bestest buddy, becoming your shiny, new enemy"

All copied from Nick Robinson's blog -

Just what were the Cabinet doing at their lunchtime meeting today? In theory they've been discussing whether to renew or replace our nuclear deterrent. I say "in theory" since it's hard to see what the point of the discussion was.

The White Paper outlining the government's proposals is being published two-and-a-half hours after the Cabinet meeting ended. An hour-and-a-half before that, journalists had been invited to read the document at a Ministry of Defence "lock-in" (so-called because you can read the document but not leave the building or use your phone or laptops until after it's published).

Is it just possible that the document had been printed before the Cabinet met? When I asked the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman, he insisted that he would not comment on "process".

This "process" matters, since ministers have made much of taking this vital and costly decision in an open, transparent and democratic way - they point out that the Cabinet have discussed the issue, there is a White Paper and there will be a vote in the Commons.

Before today, Tony Blair's Cabinet did have discussion on what Number 10 calls "the context" of today's decision and Cabinet ministers have all had the opportunity to meet with the foreign and defence secretaries to discuss the likely contents of the White Paper.

There has been, however, no Cabinet debate about the government's detailed proposals. Why? Number 10 won't say. It's worth noting that the last time a decision was handled in this way was the assessment on whether to scrap the pound and join the Euro. The theory then was that it was easier to handle people's worries in individual meetings rather than around the Cabinet table.

The sad thing is, when I read this thread, my initial gut reaction was " Ah well, we're a responsible state who will only use nukes as a deterrent, whereas Iran is a rogue state who would use them." That's conditioning for you.

Maybe JK is right when he says civilisation is destroying itself. I think Grandpa Harley is closer to the mark saying we are on the cusp of a dark age.

Humanity will wake up some day, I'm convinced, though we won't be around to see it. Could take centuries.

It's easier to bully and threaten one on one