"I understand the extreme nature of nuclear weapons, but I think trying to scale it up is just an illusion." R5 #2,827
Two kinds of inventions:
- those that enable us to do what we've done before, but better / faster / etc.
- those that enable us to do what we were not able to do before.
Murder was possible, even in the suburb of the Garden of Eden, Cain slew Able. But !
Killing an entire city, the human population of a modern city like Hiroshima, not easy without tools equal to the task.
For that reason I consider nukes in that second category.
Nuclear blackmail is not merely a hypothetical never experienced on Earth.
Putin already threatened it regarding Ukraine.
That's why Western response to the Russian invasion has been so tepid.
We endeavored, and years into it (so far) succeeded in avoiding Russia escalating to nuclear weapons. BUT !
The more nuclear-weapon nations, the greater the risk.
Whether it's cultural bias or not, the Middle East seems to concentrate homicidal / genocidal ambitions.
Discouraging Iran from arming up seems a good idea. It appears Obama did a superb job of it.
Trump has not only opened Pandora's Box, he's ripped the lid off the hinges.
Another serious problem:
"MAD" mutual assured destruction only works if BOTH sides wish to survive.
We have already suffered doomsday cultists willing to mass-murder & die for boink-wit reason.
Jim Jones even engrained into our language "drank the kool-aid".
In that case iirc, hundreds, a serious mess. BUT !
Substitute a nuke for a pitcher of kool-aid and the problem scales up by orders of magnitude.
"The reality is that once firearms were invented, murder has already been trivially easy.
And the only thing that prevents murder has always been the threat of retaliation and retribution.
So the scale of murder being increased with nukes changes nothing." R5
That may seem so, in the abstract.
It would depend upon whether the intended homicide was against a specific individual or group,
or whether simply racking up the maximum tally was the objective.
"Iran is still not going to push the button, knowing it would be suicidal." R5
Unless Iran's own demise is included in the intended objective, or considered immaterial.
"Nor is there a way to "prevent Iran from obtaining the means".
There is no way to tell if Iran is enriching or not." R5
Obama's JCPOA did.
Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, & U.S. disagree with you.
One might imagine Obama was simply swindled, a naïve dupe.
That doesn't explain Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia.
