Thread: Are nuclear weapons overrated?

"Indeed. The Japanese practically looked at the Conventions and did the exact opposite. I'm not advocating an eye for an eye, but when a bank robber pulls a gun and starts blasting his way through the crowd, the cop is justified in using whatever tool that that comes to hand first to stop him. The analogy is perfect. You don't think so because you can't make a moral distinction between the sides."...

"But, I would also suggest that the fighting men and women of the US military are all accountable to some form of legal and moral requirements that in fact place limits on what they may do, even in the heat of battle. For example the UCMJ. And they are also accountable to the ROE, and I have heard that they have the right, perhaps even duty, to refuse orders that are illegal. I think the last requirement stems from the Nazi officers...

Kyle Ouch, ouch, beat me with a chain. "A harder man? Does that imply less feeling? Perhaps less moral?" Naw, just that you draw the line at a different place than I do. For me combat morality is about staying alive and accomplishing the mission. There is a too far. It seems that your too far is "further" than mine. No less valid, just further. Were you ever a soldier? I was, the nature of morality in...

Kyle, 6, This has become for me a very interesting and stimulating discussion. I truly believe that no mortal human has a monopoly on truth and wisdom, and that reasonable people can respectfully disagree. 6, you wrote: What would you do in the same situation? I can tell you right now, you have absolutely no idea. Adrenaline, fatigue, shock, grief, anger, surrounded by death and violence, ... then put weapons into your hands .... you have...

Noodles? If you're referring to me, I said nothing of the sort.

The assessment of CIA re Soviet objectives and policies was as follows. Right from the start. "The ultimate Soviet objective is to achieve a Communist world order dominated by the USSR. Soviet leaders have clearly shown that they consider themselves engaged in an unceasing and inescapable struggle with the non-Communist countries and that they regard this struggle as essentially a state of war in which any tactic or weapon that...

Just a little correction about a-bomb motivations in '45-please don't call the cessation of japanese occupation "liberation", it was far from it. Many asian nations were handed back to their colonial masters with allied connivance and suppression of nationalist/independance movements. The US policy tacitly supported the return of the empires of europe, in the worst cases the japanese were directed to continue their...

Matt In principal I agree with your proposition but there are several other points worth considering. First, they are cheap to produce, not expensive. The delivery vehicles are somewhat expensive but not overly so. As to your assertion as to deterrence. I am not sure I agree. I do not think we would be in Iraq today if they had a nuclear capacity. As for the Gulf War scenario ... it was all talk. I am sure that the Israeli Prime Minister and...

Your argument is extremely well reasoned, but fails to consider two key points. In both N. Korea and Pakistan, nuclear weapons created huge diplomatic leverage for both (we would probably not still be in Afghanistan if Pakistan lacked nuclear weapons, and while the US yawned at N. Korea's conventional capacity to level Seoul, we ran to the table to discuss their weak nuclear capacity). Further, both also seem to have created a...

In reply to the original post, I don't believe that nuclear weapons are "overrated". I do believe, however, that the destructiveness of so-called "conventional weapons" is greatly under-rated. The US and other Western powers which field them try to minimize civilian casualties when using these weapons. If, instead, we tried to run up the body count and win a war of attrition, I believe that the modern...