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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (54462)	10/23/2001 11:08:54 AM
From: willcousa	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Nukes used wisely ended the second world war and I believe saved my father's life and that of many others. The beauty of a democracy is that we do a lot of things wisely. Thank God we have intellect driven and not emotion driven leaders at this time.

To: michael97123 who wrote (54462)	10/23/2001 11:29:32 AM
From: Cary Salsberg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

OT We have nuclear deterrence. Hopefully, terrorists will not use nukes because of it. If we use nukes, be assured that it will eliminate any deterrent effect and result in a nuclear terrorist attack in the US.

To: michael97123 who wrote (54462)	10/23/2001 11:30:49 AM
From: Mark Marcellus	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

At this point there is a tremendous psychological hurdle to be overcome to be the first to use nuclear weapons. This is even true for terrorists, who do have to worry about opinion in the Arab world. It is relatively easy to be the second, especially if the first use is by a government, and especially if that government is the US. One of the few good things about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that it served as a graphic demonstration of the deadly power of nuclear weapons. It is quite possible that the memory of those blasts prevented a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War. It was hard to make the case for a "tactical" nuclear strike once our knowledge of the effects of those weapons changed from theory to messy reality. Unfortunately, memory fades, and the unthinkable starts to become thinkable. We begin to hear about new "safer" forms of nuclear weapons which can theoretically be used without danger to innocent third parties or ourselves. This is dangerous thinking, and we do not want to go there. There may be a scenario where our first use of nuclear weapons is justified, but I can't think of one. This is not to say that there is zero chance that terrorists will use nuclear weapons. It is a possibility which we need to guard against vigilantly. However, by using them ourselves we make it much easier for them to do the same in the tit-for-tat world they inhabit.