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My second question triggered by Ukraine

Craig234

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Isn't it past time we actually try to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the risk of nuclear annihilation, from the world?

To respond to the obvious question, as I understand it we have the technology to monitor anyone developing nuclear weapons; and so assume that the suggestion to remove all of them is subject to confirmation that they can in fact be reliably prevented from being created.

No one is really talking about a large threat of nuclear war coming from the Ukraine conflict. But the very fact of how it shows our inability to have any political system and process peacefully resolve conflicts shows the danger that we can have conflicts escalate.

The threat of nuclear war might not feel likely over this, but the threat still is the elephant in the room, with a strong role - we had better be careful to say we're not going to get involved directly, lest there by any conflict that might escalate to nuclear war.

Of course it's not just to Ukraine. It overshadows things like how conflict over Taiwan is handled - don't want that to escalate to nuclear war.

We seem to be complacent in assuming it will always be avoided, not appreciating the danger - but if Putin or his successor or any other of many scenarios happened and there was nuclear war, then a few people not killed could say 'boy, we missed that danger'. We haven't solved the danger, and should try to remove it.

I know it's a complicated issues and there are new dangers. Does conventional war become easier and more likely? Is the US more vulnerable without a nuclear deterrent?

But how much safety is there really, given the threat of something leading to actual nuclear war, which seems to be more and more likely as we count on every single leader with nuclear weapons forever not using them. That seems like a formula for historic disaster, and it's too late to fix when the danger grows.

There might be an analogy to having a bomb under your neighborhood that could blow it up, that any of your neighbors can set off, and saying 'oh, that bomb helps keep us all from arguing too much, we don't want anyone getting angry enough to set it off'. But how safe is it to keep it sitting there until someone does?
 
Well it might be about time. However to the best of my knowledge there are no remaining ICBM or Missle Defense agreements between Russia and the US and it does not appear to be much interest in creating new ones. As for the rest of the world, whenever somebody gives up their nukes they get the shit kicked out of them or fall prey in some fashion. That is a tough dialog to beat.
 
Isn't it past time we actually try to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the risk of nuclear annihilation, from the world?

It's not worth the effort it would take to untangle, and it's less of a threat than it may appear.

As terrifying as it seems, MAD doctrine works.
 
As terrifying as it seems, MAD doctrine works.

That's a clueless, simplistic statement. It works for some systems, with some people, in some situations. It's a lie pretending there isn't risk of when it doesn't work. A risk the human race can't afford.
 
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