Three Million Would Die In "Limited" Nuclear War Over Kashmir

New Scientist ^ | 5-24-2002

[Notforprophet]

Wow - and how long would China sit by in such a circumstance?

[ken5050]

Scientists are not military analysts.....logic would dictate that nukes would be used against enemy troop concentrations, and NOT over cities...

[eFudd]

China would probably start shipping both sides more nuc's.

If there ended up being a few hundred million less people to the south of China, it would be much easier for them to culturally colonize just like they did in Tibet.

[umgud]

All Muslim warriors need to go to Pakistan to help fight the Indians. Hope Osama is already there.

[My Identity]

For Reference:

Hiroshima	12 kiloton
Nagasaki	10 kiloton
India	40-60 kilotons each
Pakistan	15-25 kilotons each

[BallandPowder]

Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!

[My Identity]

Some idle speculation on problems for the US:

- US Troops caught in the cross-fire
- US Troops targeted for revenge by Pakis (logic not required here)
- US blamed (logic not required here)
- US reps (embassy, etc.) caught in the cross-fire (UK ordered evacs yesterday)
- Pakistan's 'humiliation' causes it to lob everything it has at anybody it can find
- US "allies" hurt badly, US aid required
- US staging for Afghanistan from Pakistan becomes more difficult
- Region destabilized (opening for China)
- Another player (China) sneaks suitcase nukes into India
- Global fallout causes (probably unnecessary) panic
- Ripple effect in financial markets causes recession (perhaps depression)

[ken5050]

Allowing yourself to be conquered by your enemies, without dfending yourself, now that's illogical...

[frmrda]

From my understanding of the conflict the troops are already massed in close proximity. Surely dropping a nuke where it would do most "good" (killing as many enemies as possible) would be counterproductive and kill many of their own troops.

I would imagine that dropping 2 or 3 nukes where the troops are heavily massed in Kashimir, would also, in effect, destroy Kashimir, the region being disputed. The advantage is that Kashimir would be destroyed enought that they wouldn't have to fight over it again.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[katana]

And what does logic have to do with war?

Quite a lot, actually. Assuming that it is Pakistan which has to resort to first use because their lines are overrun by several dozen Indian divisions, the logical targets would be the rear echelons of those troop and armoured concentrations. Suicide is not a logical option for anyone and for them to vaporize Indian cities would insure the incineration of their own population as well.

[Robert_Paulson2]

a dmz, with a hotzone for a halflife of what, say 500 years or so? That ought to cool em down.

[Peter Porcupine]

IMHO it's 3 million fewer Muslims...

Except that's 3 million in both Pakistan and India--in fact, mostly India. So we're talking mostly Hindu and (particularly with Jammu and Kashmir involved) some Buddhist.

[alithia]

that's not counting the fallout that would blow all over the world

[alithia]

we are talking about Pakistanis.They wouldn't blink at killing civilians