7 years ago
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Diving into the unthinkable cold truths of a nuclear war
Last Thursday, President-elect Donald Trump issued a few statements (guess where) about America's military, with this statement as a kicker: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its sense regarding nukes." Though much remains to be seen about how Trump's tweets will actually translate into policy, it seems likely that nuclear war will be back on the table. Are we going to roll back decades of policy and technology to return to the Atomic Age?
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"... it seems likely that nuclear war will be back on the table. Are we going to roll back decades of policy and technology to return to the Atomic Age?"- no.
Hyperbole is ruling headlines, articles, tweets and all kinds of media. I doubt any of the so called superpowers or rogue nations would ever bring about destruction in such a manner. Chances are if there were ever to be a nuclear incident it'd be by a group who'd acquired the capability through some backdoor and I'd like to believe it still wouldn't trigger the mutually assured destruction that all out nuclear war would bring.
A thought more comforting, perhaps, than true. The history of nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, nuclear war, and nuclear 'peace,' is riven with governments, public private partnerships, corporations, almost anything but the fringe elements suggested above. To err is human, true, but to test nuclear weapons in space 'just cuz', you need a nation state.
Makes you think twice about who is crazy.
I remember as a kid how there'd be public service announcements about what to do in the event of a nuclear war.
We can only hope that no nation states get into a pissing contest serious enough to trigger any of this. I've generally thought that if anything were to happen it'd be more from the India Pakistan situation than anywhere else.