Re:What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?
by rsynnott on Sunday February 11, 2024 @03:05PM
(#39338142)
The scenario imagined in the article is more the less the “The Button” sequence from Yes Minister; when _do_ you initiate a full-blown nuclear war? You probably don’t.
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Re:What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?
by 082349872349872 on Sunday February 11, 2024 @03:13PM
(#39338213)
The most frequent ending in the card game I mentioned is that as soon as it becomes apparent that one player will lose, they take everyone else with them.
(sure, it may be just a game, but I claim there is at least one nuclear power that (a) cannot credibly claim a "no first use" policy, and (b) has been known to have leaders who fail to accept defeat graciously)
It is of course the duty of psychological warfare operatives to provide a non-button path for losing entities (does "cooling the mark out"* assume there are no psyop-immune "Doomsday Machines" in the launch path?); how confident are we they can do so effectively?
* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00332747.1952.11...
Re:What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?
by anonymouskimmer on Sunday February 11, 2024 @03:45PM
(#39338512)
A leader can only press the first button, they can't press the last button.
Every country has allies to retreat to.