Cause and effect

I AM disappointed that Dr David Stevenson (Letters, 21 December) considers an action acceptable just because it has antecedents. That of the Blair government vis a vis Iraq, which he cites, is a particularly bad example.

With all the publicity given to Iran in recent months, I should have thought that most people would now be aware it is virtually impossible for nuclear weapons to be developed in secret. Could it be that the constant use of “weapons of mass destruction”, the implication that they were immediately deployable and the subsequent action against Iraq were all undertaken in the sure knowledge that the regime had no nuclear weapons?

Those who are anti-Trident for purely emotional reasons should perhaps take note of the foregoing. The SNP, with its decision to continue to seek nuclear protection through Nato membership, obviously has changed its view. It is the rather naive underhand fashion of its actions – the attempted assurance that being an accomplice involves no complicity, while continuing to criticise those who are more transparent – to which I object.

DR A McCORMICK

Kirkland Road

Terregles, Dumfries