Lil Kim Jong Il is playing with his toys again

[baggygreen]

Originally Posted by Respenus

First of all, do you really believe that the moment the USA launches its missiles, the Russians, Chinese, Indians all the remainder and the lot who have declared or undeclared nuclear weapons will not launch missile of their own? Do you think Russia will call the USA and ask what is going on? There is a bloody good reasons why no nukes were used after the second world war. Their is no limitation to their use or their effect.

Which brings me to my second point. Let us hypothetically say that the USA obliterates North Korea from the face of the Earth and there is no outside retaliation, what do you think happens to all the radiation? It won't stay confined to the borders of North Korea. No, you'll have an irradiated world, with Russia, China, South Korea, Oceania proper and others suffering from massive radiation poisoning or the land, air, water and people. If they haven't retaliated until now, they will now, as they will search for new land on which to live.

So, launching a nuclear weapon is not as simple as it might appear.

To interject for a moment on this understandable train of thought..

On the first point, it won't be an icbm. If nuke retaliation was the way it'd more than likely be TLAM-Ns, a cruise missile. I also strongly suspect that the russkies and chinese would be ****ting themselves at the fear they might be held responsible, so yes they'd be jittery and have a finger on the button. However, if the US has a smart leader, they'll notify those nations of his plan and it is unlikely that anything further would come of it.

More than likely this is moot, I'd expect a display of firepower that made shock and awe look like kids playing with tom thumbs! maybe carpetbombing with moabs? imagine that....

on the 2nd point, that is an irrational fear, bred and spread by ignorance (no offence intended at all to yourself respenus, more those who began the fear). Countless nukes have been exploded all around the globe. The US, Japan, Russia, Australia, half the Pacific, China, and then I'm probably missing more. It takes more than 1 nuke to irradiate the globe. Yes, radiation will spread, but it takes much more than most people think to do serious damage. Point is, a couple of nukes going off won't kill of the world. It won't be nice to be nearby, but its not the end of humanity. And please noone go on at me underestimating the horror of nukes, I've met a nagasaki survivor, I know all about it.

Anyways, like I said, I doubt a nuke response to NK will take place. Too much at stake for it to be a long-term, beneficient action to the US. bring on B52s dropping MOABs all over the shop.