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Much of Hiroshima wasn't fully destroyed, and there were many survivors. Aside from the concerns about dud or destroyed missiles, you need a lot of missiles to
by avar 10y ago
Much of Hiroshima wasn't fully destroyed, and there were many survivors. Aside from the concerns about dud or destroyed missiles, you need a lot of missiles to destroy infrastructure that's more spread out.
You're also not just trying to destroy the 200 or so world capitals, but strategic assets in the US or the Soviet union. Between cities, military bases, power plants, factories and other infrastructure pertinent to waging war that 357 per capital number starts sounding a lot more reasonable.
This comparison is just another arbitrary irrelevant number journalists like to come up with that ultimately just serves
to obscure the issue. It's like describing the amount of concrete in the Hoover dam in terms of the volume of VW beatles.
- talmand 10y ago>> It's like describing the amount of concrete in the Hoover dam in terms of the volume of VW beatles. Don't leave us hanging, what's the answer?
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI'm using a concrete VW on the ocean floor as a reference. Its supposedly 8 tons. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/8589222/A-concrete-Volkswagen-Beetle-is-parked-underwater-amongst-the-sculptures-off-Cancun.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/8589222/A... > How much concrete is in the Hoover Dam? Three and one-quarter million cubic yards. (Normal weight concrete weighs about 4000 lb. per cubic yard, so 3,250,000 cubic yards weighs 6,500,000 US tons). http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/damfaqs.html http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/damfaqs.html There are ~812,500 VW bugs worth of concrete in the Hoover Dam.
- squozzer 10y agoThe Cold War era had a certain logic -- that once the US and USSR were effectively destroyed -- allies and neutral countries, even non-nuclear ones -- would become threats. If any missiles remained unfired, might as well re-target. In other words, destroying the USSR only to be conquered by Mexico would have provided an ironic epitaph for the USA.