4 ms·

Do you have a source for this? It seems (coldly and terrifyingly) sound from logical perspective, at least to the extent that "logical" is a word that can be ap

Do you have a source for this? It seems (coldly and terrifyingly) sound from logical perspective, at least to the extent that "logical" is a word that can be applied to something that threatens the entire human race. But I'm curious how much if any official doctrine has become public. If you live in a suburban bedroom community, there is a very high chance of you surviving an initial attack unscathed. One might imagine a regime that was sufficiently evil and/or endangered enough to launch wide-scale nuclear attacks might also spare a few warheads for such bedroom communities as well, especially if resistance continued after an initial exchange. Would be a terrifyingly effective way to cow a populace - to make them feel nowhere was safe.

hollerith 5y ago
>Do you have a source for this? I don't have sources, but the list is very similar to the list I would write. I have no work experience in the field, but since the end of the cold war, my probability of nuclear war has always been much higher than most English-language commentators, so I've been keeping an ear out for information. I would add that runways over 7000 feet would be such a high priority that even straight stretches of highway longer than that (which can be used as improvised runways) will probably be targeted (and some sections of the US interstate highway system built in the 1950s were made straight precisely so that they could be used as runways during a war). Also, it is at least possible that they would attack the US, but not with everything they got (at least at first) and if they do that, then oil refineries would be much higher on my list than on the list in the grandparent comment because if they do decide to attack, it is probably because they (the leaders of Russia's security apparatus) are about to lose power in which case it is likely that they blame the sanctions the West has just imposed on them as the primary cause of their immanent loss of power -- and their attacking our oil refineries will have an effect on the US much like very severe sanctions would.

hollerith 5y ago

>Do you have a source for this? I don't have sources, but the list is very similar to the list I would write. I have no work experience in the field, but since the end of the cold war, my probability of nuclear war has always been much higher than most English-language commentators, so I've been keeping an ear out for information. I would add that runways over 7000 feet would be such a high priority that even straight stretches of highway longer than that (which can be used as improvised runways) will probably be targeted (and some sections of the US interstate highway system built in the 1950s were made straight precisely so that they could be used as runways during a war). Also, it is at least possible that they would attack the US, but not with everything they got (at least at first) and if they do that, then oil refineries would be much higher on my list than on the list in the grandparent comment because if they do decide to attack, it is probably because they (the leaders of Russia's security apparatus) are about to lose power in which case it is likely that they blame the sanctions the West has just imposed on them as the primary cause of their immanent loss of power -- and their attacking our oil refineries will have an effect on the US much like very severe sanctions would.