this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
67 points (84.5% liked)
World News
32316 readers
982 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It may be the lingering THC in my bloodstream, but I struggle to understand why anyone would be willing to deploy a nuclear weapon. Once one explodes, is it not totally game over for pretty much everyone?
The US and China are two of the biggest economies in the world. If even one big city in either country gets nuked, surely that will have crippling global consequences? Radioactive fallout, major supply chain breakdowns, famine, civil unrest and the obvious initial loss of possibly millions of innocent civilians.
Like what the hell are we supposed to do man
The idea is a show of force to stop anyone from actually using them on anyone else and to get the other side to back down. No one, not even N Korea or Russia, really wants to use them. They aren’t that dumb yet fortunately.
Also, there are different tonnages of nukes. While every nuke creates an environmental disaster. Some are small enough to be localized with minimal fallout. Still not great, but not world ending either.
Leaders in the US have wanted to use them multiple times an had to be talked down by cooler heads.
Fair. When I read "no one actually wants to use nukes" I think "no nuclear power's public geopolitical doctrine involves a nuclear first strike." But individuals will not necessarily toe that line.