Getting Started

I have always found that the hardest part of any writing project is getting going, so we're going to launch straight in. It's going to be a busy week. Iran is coming back to the front burner (possibly literally if Vice-President Cheney and his acolytes get there way). So, a good time to launch a blog concentrating on proliferation and counterproliferation. And the title? Well, I have worked for more than twenty years advocating nuclear disarmament on two continents in three capitals. And yet, I don't quite fit the mould. A long time CNDer, my break with them came when much of its leadership (of which I was part at the time) discovered that, despite Halabja, Saddam wasn't as bad as the first George Bush back in 1990. The breach has widened over the years, and now I find myself little surprised that many who claim to work for peace and disarmament are prepared to countenance an Iranian nuclear weapons program as long as they can run a good campaign against Bush and Blair.

Not all disarmament advocates oppose anything just because the US, the UK or NATO do it. Not all progressive security thinkers oppose all use of military force reflexively. Nor do we all oppose western nuclear weapons, while worrying less, little or not at all about those to the east or south. So it will be with this blog.