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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Condor who wrote (15109)	12/30/2001 9:41:02 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

lib.berkeley.edu

To: Condor who wrote (15109)	12/30/2001 12:34:43 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

China, Russia and the US state that the first country to deploy a nuclear device will have their parliamentary centre "cruised" to oblivion at some unannounced moment when it will create the most impressive vapourization of offending politicians. Nuclear devices are declared globally unacceptable. On the surface, I agree, it sounds like a great idea. Trouble is a nuclear war has a dynamic far larger then humans can control. Politicians cannot control it for sure. We designed it that way. The Western nuclear arsenal has been designed to withstand a "nuclear pulse" i.e the warheads still deliver even though we have been already vapourized. It would take just one idiot to mash the launch button and the human race is toast. No big deal, in one million years (a blink of the eye in geological terms) there would be no sign left that we even existed. Seemingly Castro completely lost it during the Cuban crisis, much to Kruschev's disgust, and wanted to launch nuke's against the USA when he realized Kennedy was winning. Unfortunately there are idiots out there with the self importance to do such a thing. We need to design our defences to rule those guys out. Great piece in the Sunday Telegraph about Leslie E Robertson who was the structural engineer who designed the World Trade Centre. Can't get the link yet, remind me if I forget to post it. He says "the collapse of the Twin Towers was his responsibility". I can tell straight away that guy is almost certainly a good engineer. Haven't even read the article yet. Unfortunately this country has some structural engineers who are near useless. Big fancy names too, whose structures dont even stand up to the force of gravity. edit (a little quote I just read) At the National Council of Structural Engineers Assoc. Oct 5th....On being asked by an engineer in the audience, "Is there anything you wish you had done differently in the design of the building?", Robertson broke down and wept at the lectern. Yep, you guys have a real engineer there, god bless him.

To: Condor who wrote (15109)	12/31/2001 6:49:21 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 281500

It would ultimately be the politicians................ that authorize and deploy a nuclear device. Condor, If world war 3 is fought with nuclear weapons, then world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones. --Albert Einstein there are 16 cases in the 1900s where a country or a regime killed over 1,000,000 humans. there are 4 cases where over 10 million where killed...they are the soviet union, nazi germany, communist china and nationalist china. nuclear weapons, the most potent of all, have only been used twice so far. to get an idea of the potential consider that some 10,000 nuclear bombs exist. accidents happen. we don't need a war...an accident will do just fine. the chernobyl reactor accident has caused 70,000 folks to be currently rated permanently 100% disabled. the russians estimate 3,000,000 in the ukraine were exposed to high levels of radiation. "The UN, on the other hand, estimates that nine million people are currently suffering from diseases caused by the Chernobyl disaster." (the fallout zone included parts of poland and sweden). official death counts are unknown. certain statistics are available...approx 5-7,000 volunteer clean up workers died from exposure...some international health orgs believe the total deaths from exposure to chernobyl fallout is going to exceed 500,000. all of this and there were no heat or blast casualties which caused over 60% of the casualties in japan in 1945. the russians have at least 9, possibly 16, similar reactors in use today scattered over a very large area. their projected lifespan is 30 years to already worn out. these reactors were designed to produce electricity as well as weapons grade plutonium. the USA has 103 reactors in operation and at least a third of the world's nuclear warheads. we have about 30 reactors shut down that need to be dismantled. nobody is working on that. three mile island came within 30 minutes of a meltdown. look at the prevailing winds from that location in pennsylvania and you will realize at least 25 million Americans were at risk. the USA has been preparing for mass casualty situations in a big way for about seven years. WHY? unclewest