Ironic. I just watched a movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war, called, aptly, “Aftermath”.
More realistic plot for the war than usual. Jihadis take control of Pakistan’s nukes and all hell spins out of control.
Either way, looks like a pretty miserable way to die over several months so I’d just as soon not have a nuclear war please :)
No one wants a nuclear war. It’s just that they all want nuclear weapons so they can have a means of negotiation.
“Either way, looks like a pretty miserable way to die over several months so I’d just as soon not have a nuclear war please :)”
The dirty secret is that a nuclear war is in fact winnable at the current force levels. Air bursts (and EMP strikes) produce very little fallout. It’s the ground bursts that’ll get you, and the big concern is the counterforce strikes trying to take out the land based ICBMs - all ground bursts. But, our land based ICBM forces have been whittled down to fewer than 450 here in the US... Our total deliverable strategic warhead count is around 1,500.
The “winning” side would have to absorb massive losses and damage. It might be worth it though, with the whole world as your oyster afterwards... (BTW, an interesting and frightening scenario is China provoking a war between Russia and the US, then attacking the victor.)
I wonder how well the Russians actually know the patrol routes for our ballistic missile subs at this point.
At any rate, I’ll have to check out “Aftermath”, thanks for the tip!
(BTW for those interested in nuclear weapons and their effects, the NukeMap site is interesting: http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/)