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Lets see, the Cuban Missile Crisis is a nice place to start. Set in motion in part because USA had placed missiles in Turkey and USSR attempted to do the same

Lets see, the Cuban Missile Crisis is a nice place to start. Set in motion in part because USA had placed missiles in Turkey and USSR attempted to do the same in Cuba. Never mind having launch codes set to all zeros for a number of years. And more than a few soiled pants moments where live nukes have been mismanaged (like having a B-52 fly across the nation with a live one in the bay, because someone got it and a training bomb confused). Sorry to say but USA all too often come across as teenagers seen by foreign eyes.

lttlrck 9y ago
A teenager would have hidden those lapses.
dogma1138 9y ago
Russia had just as many accidents as the US if not more you just don't hear about them. The launch code anecdote isn't actually true http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/21/air-force-swears-our-nuke-launch-code-was-never-00000000/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/21/air-force-swears-our-nuk... There was never any time where any one could launch the missiles alone with or without the final authorization codes coming through the chain of command. And in some sense you are making my point for me, even if we take the US as a bunch of drunk teenagers N. Korea would be worse, not only that they have complete disregard of human life anyone is too fucking scared to say anything that isn't "yes supreme leader the missile you've designed works perfectly". This is the problem with such regimes that they essentially are biased against any shred of competence. That Sacha Baron Cohen movie was somewhat dead on the money in this regard when 'Aladeen' executes the guy incharge of the missile system because it wasn't pointy enough. Both Saddam and Gaddafi acted similarly with their own weapon programs especially in the latter years which is one of the reasons they got no where. The interference from Israeli, US and probably 20 other intelligence agencies didn't really help the situation. However North Korea is an intelligence gathering nightmare it's a closed up ethnostate where local population has essentially been brainwashed there is little to no outside communication there are almost no embassies or diplomatic missions so running any humint assets in country is pretty much impossible. Which is somewhat scary since there is little to no warning when N. Korea does something essentially all the intelligence is coming from either SIGINT intercepts or VISINT gathered from orbit which limits the insight one can gather this is quite different than what was going on in the cold war. Ironically spying is on the top of the list of reasons to have a diplomatic relationship with another country because running any intelligence operation becomes much harder to near impossible without an embassy.
coliveira 9y ago
Also the only country to use a-bombs to destroy two cities.

lttlrck 9y ago

A teenager would have hidden those lapses.

dogma1138 9y ago

Russia had just as many accidents as the US if not more you just don't hear about them. The launch code anecdote isn't actually true http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/21/air-force-swears-our-nuke-launch-code-was-never-00000000/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/21/air-force-swears-our-nuk... There was never any time where any one could launch the missiles alone with or without the final authorization codes coming through the chain of command. And in some sense you are making my point for me, even if we take the US as a bunch of drunk teenagers N. Korea would be worse, not only that they have complete disregard of human life anyone is too fucking scared to say anything that isn't "yes supreme leader the missile you've designed works perfectly". This is the problem with such regimes that they essentially are biased against any shred of competence. That Sacha Baron Cohen movie was somewhat dead on the money in this regard when 'Aladeen' executes the guy incharge of the missile system because it wasn't pointy enough. Both Saddam and Gaddafi acted similarly with their own weapon programs especially in the latter years which is one of the reasons they got no where. The interference from Israeli, US and probably 20 other intelligence agencies didn't really help the situation. However North Korea is an intelligence gathering nightmare it's a closed up ethnostate where local population has essentially been brainwashed there is little to no outside communication there are almost no embassies or diplomatic missions so running any humint assets in country is pretty much impossible. Which is somewhat scary since there is little to no warning when N. Korea does something essentially all the intelligence is coming from either SIGINT intercepts or VISINT gathered from orbit which limits the insight one can gather this is quite different than what was going on in the cold war. Ironically spying is on the top of the list of reasons to have a diplomatic relationship with another country because running any intelligence operation becomes much harder to near impossible without an embassy.

coliveira 9y ago

Also the only country to use a-bombs to destroy two cities.