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No nuclear weapons makes the horrible possible again. Remember WWI, WWII? Those were possible because no one was worried about their entire nation being levelle
by GunboatDiplomat 10y ago
No nuclear weapons makes the horrible possible again. Remember WWI, WWII? Those were possible because no one was worried about their entire nation being levelled in minutes. Nuclear weapons constrain the actions of their possessors to a degree that global war between large (read: nuclear) powers is almost impossible. Without nuclear weapons, I doubt we have an over 70 year period of more or less peace between the great powers.
When was the last time that happened before nuclear weapons? I can't think of a time without going back at least a millenium.
- digi_owl 10y agoNah. WW1 happened because nobody in charge had any clue how effective their new guns were. WW2 was payback for hurt pride from WW1. And the cold war peace have not been that much different from the colonial times.
- lloeki 10y agoYou're explaining why, GP is explaining that guaranteed mutual destruction preempts the why. IOW mankind reached such astounding levels of destruction potential that it just obliterated the possibility of war between potent parties. Case in point, I'm confident we could build even more powerful weapons, but we don't, because it's useless.
- dTal 10y agoMan, don't say that. There's no point building a bigger bomb, true, but there's more to weapon "power" than the size of the bang it makes - precision, for a start. For example, a horde of autonomous killbots is a far more powerful weapon than a nuke; you could obliterate a country's populace without fallout and without touching the infrastructure. Do not think for a moment that the US military-industrial complex would not make these if they could.