What I always find darkly amusing is that the word "decimate" now means "absolute catastrophe", when the original Roman term only meant a 10% loss (eg, squads of 10 drew sticks, the one short stick was the victim).

But Buffet is clearly not talking about a 10% loss, in the event of a major nuclear engagement -- that would be a wildly optimistic read. We're clearly talking somewhere between 50% - 95% - total shutdown of equity markets.

Not saying anyone is using words wrong, just funny how language drifts.