The U.S. is the only country to ever drop a nuclear bomb on a quarter million civilians, claiming it ended the war early. Other countries got the bomb to deter the U.S. from assimilating them. Iran's desire. Which country do you think will be the one to say, "fuck the world" and start WWIII? I think all the countries that have the bomb, know that when they use it they will cease to exist a few minutes later. I just hope I'm at ground zero. I wonder if I live close enough to Washington D.C., 80 miles west. I know I won't survive the radiation fallout. But I don't want to suffer through it. I do have a plan.
USA again. But why is it actually so certain everybody would be wiped out? Didn't happen the first time (atrocity nevertheless). I don't think it will be dropped with the thought 'fuck the world'. At best 'fuck that part of the world'. I acknowledge that if it is a big enough bomb it could be a global wipe out.
The bomb is now more than ten times bigger. And as soon as one it dropped retaliation will be global.
I think the big three, U.S., Russia, and China will only do it it retaliation. Whoever does it will not care about ceasing to exist....Like North Korea. If ISIS gets their hands on one, it will be them for sure, IMO.
It would have to be someone that would want to cause destruction without retaliation. Like some terrorist that could slip one into a city and then escape without a trace. I don't think a major country would use one in broad daylight.
I would think the next one would be dropped in desperation. As much as every country tries to make other countries look like devils, with propaganda, I don't think it's in human nature to cause that much suffering to innocent people, in retaliation. Everyone wants the a-bomb to use as a threat against attacks, like a middle school kid showing off his switchblade. I cans see a lower tech dirty bomb being used by a terrorist group though.
It's been a long time since anyone actually dropped one. Most of the testing has been underground, which I think is monumentally stupid as well. Since the first there have been over 2,000 nuclear detonations on this planet. Even if an array of the largest were exploded somewhere, it's unlikely the entire earth could be destroyed. Poisoned horribly, sure, but no nation has the button on doomsday. That's a scare tactic for the rest of us to swallow. What I do think though is that the spikes in cancers has a direct line to 2,000 nukes being "tested". The moratorium probably saved a lot of the earth already. The only "fuck the planet" plan I have heard of is the rumored "Samson Option" that Israel supposedly mapped out. With their rumored capability being 400 or so nukes with no disclosed yield numbers, it's doubtful they could accomplish more than putting the rest of humanity back a century or so while ensuring their kind will either be rubbed out or otherwise marginalized for the centuries going forward. It would be ethnic suicide. North Korea on the other hand could accomplish a great deal of change with only a few nukes. Reserving at least 1 for an EMP attack over the US and possibly another for Europe would leave them free to pillage South Korea on threats alone. Maybe even Japan as well. I don't know if the US and Russian space-based weapons platforms would be immune to EMP or not. I have no idea at what orbital altitude they reside. But I assume they are high enough for such a scenario which makes the prospect of nuking their cities pretty slim. I've heard rumors that Iran has tested Scud (or Scud 2 or Taepodong 3) missiles (using bags of cement for payload) from container ships, but none of them has an effective vacuum engine so the EMP scenario might only be limited to a pocket, like a 300 mile circle around New York or DC. Nuclear war is not practical. Nuclear threats are.
China? No chance, I think they're honestly too smart for that and they'd send in the millions upon millions of foot soldiers before it came to it. China is the interesting military powerhouse at the moment because I don't think anybody really knows their capabilities. I sure don't. I've never heard of them fighting anywhere. =\ I don't think it'll be Russia, for NATO's heavy involvement in setting up missiles in Poland would knock them out of the sky beforehand and also, the next one after would be coming from Poland too. It'll be some fuckwit in the middle of the sand deserts.
If the Iran nuke deal goes through, Israel may drop one on Iran...or at least bomb their nuclear reactors. Then the shit hits the fan.