A Deadly Nuclear Explosion (Time)

President Barack Obama this week (June 21) in Berlin proposed that the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear weapons arsenals. Under the New START Treaty, each country has about 1,500 nuclear missiles and bombs. The president proposes that each country get rid of 500 of those weapons each. The question is: would it make any difference that their numbers are reduced, and is that all we could or should do?

If at all there came about a serious military conflict between the U.S. and Russia, way less than 1,000 of those deadly weapons would be ten times more than enough to completely obliterate each other’s existence, plus some. Couple that with the fact that delivery systems have been developed by each side that allows these weapons to travel undetected, avoid obstacles and counter-measures, and accurately strike given, pre-programmed targets with deadly (sic) accuracy.

Even if only 50 each of these weapons struck the other side, it would definitely result in the end of the world as we know it. Stealth, global satellite guidance, and packed power would do the job of allowing almost all launched systems to succeed. And then what do we have? Probably half of humanity destroyed and the other half seriously without any hope of survival.

Not gonna happen? Just wait until we have another crazed demagogue like Adolf Hitler.

Since the end of World War II the human race has succeeded in “keeping the peace” – avoiding global, or seriously destructive widespread – conflict. But a war between two powerful nations is not totally inevitable. It is therefore necessary that we come to terms with reality and work for the destruction of ALL existing nuclear weapons and develop a means for detecting when such weapons are being produced. This way, nuclear weapons can become a thing of the past – nuclear weapons would have the same fate as the bubonic plague.