Originally Posted By Mr X ***Convince me how it can happen, how it will work.*** Sign a reduction treaty and include provisions for verification (I was reading about how, when the U.S. and Russia vowed to reduce their bombers they would have to chop them into six pieces (thus "destroyed") for verification by enemy satellites...something like that). The really big issue here though which just dawned on me (and yes it makes the President look like a hypocrite since as it stands this is NOT possible) is how do you get Israel to admit it has an arsenal and agree to destroy it?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>So, even *if* a rogue country did manage to detonate a bomb (and dared do so), why would "a nuke for a nuke" be a better retaliation than a coalition of forces conventionally bombing their country into a parking lot?<< It is that mutually-assured destruction thing. Even most of the craziest SOBs don't really want to die (they send in lackeys for that). I think, as a deterrent, it keeps other nations at bay. But truly, if there's a way to make it happen, make it truly be NO nukes, hey, sign me up.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***It is that mutually-assured destruction thing. Even most of the craziest SOBs don't really want to die (they send in lackeys for that).*** That's for a comparable enemy though K2M. For a rogue nation, we can assuredly destroy them completely WITHOUT the mess and fallout of a nuke, so even if THEY used one we probably wouldn't in return. As for terrorists, well, you gotta find em first anyway. Again, nukes aren't necessary.
Originally Posted By Mr X In other words, against the likes of Communist Russia it was an issue of "if you blow up all our cities we'll blow up all of yours", thus MAD... There's no "mutually assured" for some rogue nation with a few atomic bombs, sure they could be suicidal enough to wipe out a couple of cities, but will surely find their country wiped out in the aftermath. So whether or not WE, the big countries, have nukes or not in that case is completely irrelevant. That's my point.
