5 ms·
> Tsar Bomba is a potent example of how nationalism, fear, and high-technology can combine in a fashion that is ultimately dangerous, wasteful, and pointless.
by ignoramous 2y ago
> Tsar Bomba is a potent example of how nationalism, fear, and high-technology can combine in a fashion that is ultimately dangerous, wasteful, and pointless.
Yep. Some similar grandstanding by the Chinese Army in 1960s accelerated the Indian nuclear weapons programme (overriding the utter lack of political will of its then primary leaders). After, buoyed by newly acquired capabilities, in 1980s, the Indian Army conducted largest ever military exercise (Operation Brasstacks) providing much needed impetus & driving consensus in Pakistan to push forward no matter the cost, embodied in this notorious quip by their ex Prime Minister, "[Pakistan] will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own [atomic weapon]."
The untold stories of these godly bombs are the devastation they wreak without needing to be ever "used". Devil's greatest trick...
- radicaldreamer 2y agoMuch more recently, you saw North Korea go through famine and economic development to build the bomb
- XorNot 2y agoSure but that's keep the Kim family in power. It has nothing to do with the plight of the North Korean people. Edit: fixed family name
- Qem 2y agoOne can argue they are faring better than Iraq, Libya, Ukraine or Lebanon.
- ygra 2y agoIs that due to fear of an atomic bomb or more because of the artillery pieces aimed at Seoul as well as surrounding countries being unwilling to take in large amounts of North Korean refugees?
- Qem 2y agoNK sold a lot of its artillery supplies to Russia, probably because they aren't that important anymore, after they got nukes. See https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorean-artillery-saved-russia-6million https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/nkorean-artillery-... SK probably wouldn't mind receiving some NK refugees, to make for their ~0.7 fertility rates.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jjk166 2y agoNo one could possibly say for sure. But undoubtedly if the west was apprehensive about war with North Korea then, they are more so now.
- hollerith 2y agoThe regime in NK persists because a great power (namely, Beijing) does not want an ally of the West on its border and is willing to spend the lives of 100s of 1000s of its soldiers to prevent that from happening (as illustrated by Beijing's choices during the Korean War). Iraq, Libya or Lebanon don't have that advantage (and Kiev would get that advantage only if switches to being pro-Russian).
- njarboe 2y agoI don't think Russia would have invaded Ukraine if it still had nuclear weapons.
- Yeul 2y agoCan you blame them really? American regime change is real and Koreans have a... complicated past with China. Besides nukes are cheap compared to fielding 20 tank divisions as the Europeans did for 50 years in West Germany.
- dghughes 2y ago>Some similar grandstanding by the Chinese Army in 1960s accelerated the Indian nuclear weapons programme (overriding the utter lack of political will of its then primary leaders). I've read about the Indian military and how it's so disorganized. I mean really as in each branch does not even have the capability of communicating with the other branches. And that's now in 2024 I can only imagine in the 1960s.
- _tik_ 2y agoIt was similar for China—Mao launched the nuclear bomb program after the U.S. threatened to use nuclear weapons against China.