Is Nuclear War Inevitable?

Nah, nuclear weapons are not an offensive tactical or strategical weapon, and no country is insane enough to launch the 1st nuclear weapon where country number 2 can then use their nukes in a retaliatory way. It's the perfect catch 22. They're basically a big "don't fuck with me" sign.

Dirty bombs remain a possibility.

 

If the U.S. doesn't get rid of their nuclear weapons I can understand unstable regimes would like to keep theirs too, so the threat will remain.

 

Why is always the US; Russia, Britain, France, China, Pakistan, India, Israel, and possibly North Korea all have nuclear weapons.

 

There you go, a few neutron devices could pacify a population ensconced in rugged terrain for example.

 

I said the U.S. because that's generally the country whining about the threat of nuclear weapons in the other ones. Rather typical since they're also the only one who used them in a war.

 

Britain, Russia and France whine about nuclear disarmament just as much as the United States and all do just as little to reduce their own stockpiles. Not to mention the Manhattan project was a collective effort of the United States, Britain, Canada, as well as scientists from other nations. The use of the nuclear bomb in WW2 is irrelevant to the possible use of nuclear weapons past then. On the political front it may have had to been authorized by the US president to go ahead but was part of an overall allied command strategy. Two, war had been going on for 6 years, 9 in the Pacific, it's pretty easy to say use of nuclear weapons is bad when anywhere between 40-60 million people already laid dead from conventional arms and nuclear weapons appear to be the only strategic possibility of being able to put off an allied invasion of Japan/Soviet invasion of Japanese occupied China which would've resulted in millions of more casualties.

Nuclear weapons changed from that point on. There should be no moral qualms about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why are they so bad, the amount of civilians who died? Do we forget the massive strategic bombing campaigns launch by both sides during the war, that should be the real moral question. More people died in the firestorms of Tokyo in Japan, Hamburg in Germany, and various other cities(mainly Japan due to the much higher rate of incendiary bombs dropped on Japan combined with cities with extensive wood structures) than the atomic bombings, the A bombs just killed a lot of people at once vs over the course of a week or two.

Once at least two nations acquired nuclear weapons though the concept of strategic/tactical bombing is in fact no longer a moral concern, as it won't exist to be a concern. There will no conventional bombing of cities past that point, all cities would just be nuked right off the bat. It wouldn't be the way to end a war, it'd be the opening salvo.

 

That's a coincidence this was posted today. Last night I was thinking about all the poor people way back during the "cold war" who had to grow fearing the bomb. It would be like being afraid at all times, constant paranoia. Then I thought wait, don't we still have to fear the bomb? The threat isn't over.

 

That all makes sense to me, but I still don't think countries like China, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea etc. going to disarm or stop developing because of these arguments as long as 'the free world' (and other named countries of course) likes to keep their own for whatever reason. So the threat remains. If it's inevitable I can't really say

 

Vacinate your people then unleash a plauge on the rest of the world, wait 25 years and move into you're new home.

 

over the years people will learn to navigate in their minds between thanatos and eros, eventually moving toward the eros, and the world will be one big happy free place

 

Over a million years perhaps..

 

yeah, we're fooked

 

I see a four year long announced cold war starting in the near future, just in time to coincide with Obama's second term in office.

With who?

Take your pick, anyone could be the enemy when your just anticipating a punch the money will roll in and the excuse for lack of healthcare in the U.S will be cemented, and allt he left wingers will just eat it up.

 

I just see the whole Nucleur thing happening if some fundamentalist religion is determined to end the world on their own delusion D day.

 

Which religion are you talking about?

 

I think it is fairly unlikely there will be a nuclear war in our life times...
I also think we should not drag up the cold war or what occurred during the war...
All concerned have moved on, we should too.
Like has been said: "WW2 is irrelevant to the possible use of nuclear weapons past then."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...tement-toward-a-world-without-nuclear-weapons

(obviously there are older versions of this too)

Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One
"International Disarmament and Non-proliferation: World Security without Weapons of Mass Destruction"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran...e_on_Disarmament_and_Non-_Proliferation,_2010

Sounds great doesn't it?
...and do you know what, it probably is better than most would acknowledge, in certain quarters.

I have hope that 99% of the world would not engage in a nuclear war any time soon...if at all.
Even if countries acquire Nukes it does not necessarily mean they will use them or wish to use them...

I think at this point it is still a threat rather than a risk.

 

I think, maybe. It does depend on the unlikely, but still slightly possible chance the wrong person is given possession of such a dangerous tool.

You have suicide bombers, people who believe in the after life. What would stop someone blowing up the world, if they were convinced it was just the starting gate.

It's just not easy to get hold of nuclear weapons like that, but in any case, you should never rule out the possibility. Not everyone is sane.

 

When I was a kid and Ronald Reagan was spewing his rhetoric nuclear war seemed inevitable
but now that seems like a million years ago

Hotwater

 

nuclear war is not inevitable,if we have sound leadership,make sure that those who do threaten it know they won't be around to celebrate their arrogance