It's been an uneventful weekend, so let's start off with this piece about the day to day life of the dwindling ranks of the United State's Missileers; the men who dwell where Death wears bunny slippers.
3 comments:
Wunderbear
said...
Having recently caught the 1980's pop documentary QED: A Guide to Armageddon (and the later, related, more widely-known drama Threads), I feel somewhat strongly against the idea of being incinerated/melted/burned to half-death/irradiated/crushed beneath rubble in a nuclear war.
However. The concept of MAD is a strangely stabilising one, so I don't bear any ill will towards the men in their silos. (That patch is awesome, after all)
I just hope they don't actually have to carry out their duty.
(It also leads me to another question - the demand for an anti-missile defence. Obviously it makes sense on paper - nobody wants to get nuked, after all - but doesn't it have an imbalancing effect on the whole MAD thing?)
Actually, the effect of missile defence on MAD is irrelevant because MAD is no longer in effect. This is because:
a) The Russian strategic forces are currently a joke as far as being a threat to the West. (We're mainly concerned about their technology falling into even worse hands) b) The whole point of missile defence is to leave the attacker (Russia) uncertain that a first strike would succeed. c) The only ones whose knickers would get in a twist would be on the Russians because they have no way to counter it. (This is a good thing) d) Thanks to the fall of the USSR, we pretty much know the serial number of every Russian nuke and they know nothing of ours. e) The whole thing is moot because both arsenals are targeted on the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
f) The people most likely to launch nuclear missiles at us aren't the Russians, or even the Chinese (whose missile force is smaller than... France's).
The missiles will most likely come from the MidEast, complete with quotations from the Prophet painted on them to sanctify them.
MAD is a moot point with the most likely culprits. To religious ideologues who are entranced by eschatology and "martyrdom", being vaporized in return isn't a bug, it's a feature. (The wishes of their people to the contrary don't count with them.)
3 comments:
Having recently caught the 1980's pop documentary QED: A Guide to Armageddon (and the later, related, more widely-known drama Threads), I feel somewhat strongly against the idea of being incinerated/melted/burned to half-death/irradiated/crushed beneath rubble in a nuclear war.
However. The concept of MAD is a strangely stabilising one, so I don't bear any ill will towards the men in their silos. (That patch is awesome, after all)
I just hope they don't actually have to carry out their duty.
(It also leads me to another question - the demand for an anti-missile defence. Obviously it makes sense on paper - nobody wants to get nuked, after all - but doesn't it have an imbalancing effect on the whole MAD thing?)
Actually, the effect of missile defence on MAD is irrelevant because MAD is no longer in effect. This is because:
a) The Russian strategic forces are currently a joke as far as being a threat to the West. (We're mainly concerned about their technology falling into even worse hands)
b) The whole point of missile defence is to leave the attacker (Russia) uncertain that a first strike would succeed.
c) The only ones whose knickers would get in a twist would be on the Russians because they have no way to counter it. (This is a good thing)
d) Thanks to the fall of the USSR, we pretty much know the serial number of every Russian nuke and they know nothing of ours.
e) The whole thing is moot because both arsenals are targeted on the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
David & Wunderbear;
Also;
f) The people most likely to launch nuclear missiles at us aren't the Russians, or even the Chinese (whose missile force is smaller than... France's).
The missiles will most likely come from the MidEast, complete with quotations from the Prophet painted on them to sanctify them.
MAD is a moot point with the most likely culprits. To religious ideologues who are entranced by eschatology and "martyrdom", being vaporized in return isn't a bug, it's a feature. (The wishes of their people to the contrary don't count with them.)
cheers
eon
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