I have been stunned by the total silence on this thread.
Trump has impetuously and clearly illegally launched missle strikes on a sovereign state - and one which is currently being actively supported by its Russian ally's armed forces. The evasion of a direct clash relied upon the kind of margin on which the security of a civilised world should not have to depend. The attacked state's heinous wrong-doing is strenuously alleged but so far unproven and there has been no legal cover given to Trump's actions by the UN.
I now see reports of his sending a carrier and missle squadron, described even by the BBC as a "naval strike group", towards the North Korean peninsula - and nobody - nobody here is commenting! I remember very vividly the atmosphere as the Cuban missile crisis moved towards it last two days and I never wanted to feel such apprehension again - but that would seem to be the potential of what Trump is now building.
Having said the which, it behoves people on this side of the pond to remember that this spiralling anarchy of armed big powers and their surrogates is the world that Blair, from Kosovo onwards, did so much to create. Should any of you wonder about the link between this post and my enthusiasm for Scotland's independence, just examine the proximity of the nuclear base at Faslane and its immediate missile-storing hinterland to Glasgow and the other major centres of population in my country (and I don't mean the UK). The removal of all such weapons from Scotland's territory was always, and remains, one of the principal objectives of the SNP and of the wider independence movement.
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