This was every day life as a Cold War Kid. The threat of nuclear annihilation hung over us every day. Here's the thing - I don't think all-out nuclear war need

This was every day life as a Cold War Kid. The threat of nuclear annihilation hung over us every day. Here's the thing - I don't think all-out nuclear war needs to be feared. I recall an exercise the USAF did several years ago where they prepared to launch the entire fleet of land-based missiles. Only 10% of the silos were able to open adequately enough to allow a launch. Of those able to launch, only a fraction would be able to launch due to the age of the launch vehicles. Of those able to launch only a fraction will be able to detonate - again due to aging issues. Of those actually capable of launching, several will be taken out by anti-missile defense systems. Only a fraction of a percentage of the missiles would be able to launch, not be destroyed during transit, and be able to detonate. Yes, things would be horrible for the folks where the bombs actually detonated, but it's not the civilization-ending event as once feared. Since I'm a Cold War Kid, I hail from the era where nuclear arms were viewed as strategic weapons - they were a threat, a deterrence. They were never seen as an offensive weapon. Now as the decades have passed we don't even see them as much of a deterrence any longer - especially since the country using them will be exiled from the rest of the civilized world for the foreseeable future. Bottom line? Don't worry about it. If Putin decides to launch then that will be the last you see or hear from the Russian Federation for a long, long time.