Letters to the editor: NZ's nuclear-free policy foolish

It was Lange's fault the US withdrew from ANZUS, says a reader. Photo / File

Re Rob Rattenbury's column (Opinion, October 26) and his comment that New Zealand was booted out of the ANZUS defence pact.

The real reason was David Lange was not savvy enough to handle the relationship.

The US had a long-standing policy that when its naval ships visited a country, it would neither confirm nor deny there were any nuclear weapons on board.

The vessel concerned was a supply ship which was generally known to have no nuclear weapons on board.

Lange tried to bounce the US on their policy. Consequently, the US withdrew from ANZUS.

All Lange needed to do was to tell the US that New Zealand would adopt the same policy as the New York port authority, which banned nuclear ships in its harbour.

Thereafter Lange was shunned by virtually all governments of Western nations and New Zealand suffered greatly for several decades.

Declaring ourselves nuclear-free as a policy is fair enough but it is akin to residents declaring their street burglar-free and leaving their houses unlocked.

Labour got rid of New Zealand's strike Air Force in 2001. Now we cannot even shoot down an aircraft or vessel bent on some sort of destruction.

Looking ahead, New Zealand needs a strong military force to prevent invasion.

Bill Capamagian
Tauranga

Water on the Moon

Wow, I hear the singing, the dancing in the streets, celebrations in the halls of power and the self-satisfied gloating in the scientific community as they chant, ''I told you so'' to the doubters.

NASA has found water on the moon.

This presents a tremendous leap forward in the exploration and the eventual populating of Mars because this planet, Earth, is stuffed.

We've wrecked it with our greed, the ever-present desire for more.

Mankind has found salvation in the form of commandeering our next planetary victim in the relentless search for Utopia.

Oh, I forgot to say, it's not water in a usable form, oh no, it's a molecule here, another a metre or so away and then, my gosh, there's one over there.

So what are we to make of this excitement?

A sober look at some facts might be useful here. The Bible tells us that God gave mankind authority over the earth and all that is in it (Genesis 1-3), but implies that He retains authority over the sun, moon the stars and all of the rest of creation.

Dare we go where even angels fear to tread? And if we do, how long will it take us to destroy that pristine landscape?

John Williams
Ngongotahā

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