Re:My new favorite book of all time
by martin1975 on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:51PM
(#16259190)
Nothing has had as large an impact on the maintenance of relative peace, at least between large/nuclear nations, as the atomic bomb. It's the MAD principle - mutually assured destruction. I think our discovery of nukes is actually pretty cool.
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I've heard that there was a sign at Oak Ridge National Labs congratulating them that their work had kept the peace for decades.
My first thought was that they ought to have a monument to the Rosenbergs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg), if that is the approach they're taking.
Re:My new favorite book of all time
by CamperBob2 on Monday January 29, 2018 @03:31PM
(#16260398)
No question about it. Nukes accomplish something that no other deterrent can: they make world leaders personally afraid to go to war with each other.
Those who advocate nuclear disarmament are basically advocating a return to increasingly-bloody world wars every few years.
Of course, it's also true that the leaders who are afraid to confront each other directly are more likely to resort to proxy wars that cause massive pain and suffering in their own right. But that's a different problem that will have to be solved by different means.