Re:Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear wa...
by sulam on Monday September 18, 2017 @09:12AM
(#15275527)
s/compromised/comprised/
Re:Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear wa...
by doublecorrect on Monday September 18, 2017 @02:14PM
(#15278161)
s/comprised/composed/
Re:Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear wa...
by rl3 on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @04:23AM
(#15282703)
Interesting, I never knew that grammatical holy war existed. Learn something new every day.
The original mistake was just an autocorrect error. Some day I'll learn not to write posts from mobile devices.
Also, I noticed you created an account just for this. Assuming it isn't a throwaway, welcome to HN. That's a cool username.
Re:Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear wa...
by zimpenfish on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @04:30AM
(#15282731)
Whilst "comprised" is a bit clunky, it's also not wrong in the slightest.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprise
"The factory was to be a vast installation, comprising fifty buildings" is the same kind of use.
Then again, it's not a proper Cold War strategic game theory play unless you're banking on your enemy to hesitate due to the unusual nature of the attack. SLBMs scream first strike, while a few birds out of many launching from farm country in the central United States in sequential fashion, not so much.
That said, I'm not sure what would have consituted "twitching" after Soviet C&C is wiped out, and if I was a planner at the time I don't think I'd want to find out. It would likely have been prudent to immediately follow up the decapitation strike with complete annihilation of Soviet nuclear retaliatory capability. Every deployed Soviet boomer accounted for and shadowded, with firing solutions computed. Every missile silo targeted. Presumably strategic air bases would be targeted in the first volley, though there would remain the possibility of strategic bomber patrols already airborne.
First strikes are really messy and entail a ridiculous amount of risk. Considering the stakes, it's no wonder neither side ever tried.