Is nuclear war inevitable?

[johnny on the spot]

Strategic Nuclear War isn't likely. The deployment of tactical nuclear warheads? Well, the latter could beget the former and who wants that?

 

[york away to this!]

...more likely to be some kind of evil death ray by an invading space rabbit - or similar.

 

[TCIB]

Strategic Nuclear War isn't likely. The deployment of tactical nuclear warheads? Well, the latter could beget the former and who wants that?

It would make good b-footage pinewood studios could buy for the next bond film though.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The biggest risk for me comes from an accident.

This has almost happened before when the American's and Nato decided that a major military exercise at the height of the cold war would be a good idea.

It very nearly convinced the Russians that it wasn't an exercise at all and that they were about to attack.

Have a read of Operation Able Archer...It is really quite frightening.

Another instance in 1983 was even closer. A Russian manning an early warning detection system saw that his computers were saying that missiles were incoming from the US and that Russia was under attack. Luckily he also had access to satellite imagery which monitored Nuclear Weapon Silo's in the US and he could see no evidence of a launch so he held his nerve and did not report this. Had he done so, it is almost certain that the Russians would have retaliated immediately but with a full scale strike which the Americans would have responded to and almost certainly brought about the end of the world. It was found to be clouds that had disturbed the sensors!!!

The Russians were furious with him for not reporting it and he was pensioned off apparently. 1983 was a very bad year for relations between the two superpowers and it was only when Thatcher and Reagan were briefed on how close the Russians came to retaliating that they began to thaw relations and this would lead to the fall of the iron curtain.

As Putin is building it up again, days like this could become the norm again and it only takes one error, man or computer!

 

[johnny on the spot]

The biggest risk for me comes from an accident.

This has almost happened before when the American's and Nato decided that a major military exercise at the height of the cold war would be a good idea.

It very nearly convinced the Russians that it wasn't an exercise at all and that they were about to attack.

Have a read of Operation Able Archer...It is really quite frightening.

Another instance in 1983 was even closer. A Russian manning an early warning detection system saw that his computers were saying that missiles were incoming from the US and that Russia was under attack. Luckily he also had access to satellite imagery which monitored Nuclear Weapon Silo's in the US and he could see no evidence of a launch so he held his nerve and did not report this. Had he done so, it is almost certain that the Russians would have retaliated immediately but with a full scale strike which the Americans would have responded to and almost certainly brought about the end of the world. It was found to be clouds that had disturbed the sensors!!!

The Russians were furious with him for not reporting it and he was pensioned off apparently. !

Was that Petrov?

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The biggest risk for me comes from an accident.

This has almost happened before when the American's and Nato decided that a major military exercise at the height of the cold war would be a good idea.

It very nearly convinced the Russians that it wasn't an exercise at all and that they were about to attack.

Have a read of Operation Able Archer...It is really quite frightening.

Another instance in 1983 was even closer. A Russian manning an early warning detection system saw that his computers were saying that missiles were incoming from the US and that Russia was under attack. Luckily he also had access to satellite imagery which monitored Nuclear Weapon Silo's in the US and he could see no evidence of a launch so he held his nerve and did not report this. Had he done so, it is almost certain that the Russians would have retaliated immediately but with a full scale strike which the Americans would have responded to and almost certainly brought about the end of the world. It was found to be clouds that had disturbed the sensors!!!

The Russians were furious with him for not reporting it and he was pensioned off apparently. !

Was that Petrov?

Yeah but Stanislav not Martin :-)

Scary to think that a computer malfunction could almost cause World War three but for me that is the most likely scenario.

It was been 70 years since WW2 ended and it is probable that Nuclear weapons have actually prevented another war.

The world is getting a bit scarier than it was though.

 

[RandomJ]

Scarier thing is how poorly secured some of them are. Read an article a bit ago about Americas ageing nukes and where they are stored and some it's just an iron fence.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

The principle of 'mutually assured destruction' should keep us all safe from nuclear war. No state would in their right mind take the risk of launching a nuclear attack because they would effectively be launching a retaliation attack on themselves.

However, the threat to this principle comes from those who do not care about, or who do not fear, the destruction of their own nations/states - either because they (the leaders) can place themselves at a safe distance, or because death is just a mere passage to the afterlife. In other words, it's theocratic states that could make nuclear war inevitable.

I think this is an unfortunate truth.

 

[CTID1988]

Didnt russia aim their nukes at us during the kosovo war?

 

[stony]

Didnt russia aim their nukes at us during the kosovo war?

I would imagine they have some aimed at us all the time. You don't get much of a warning with an ICBM, I wouldn't expect them to start faffing about programming a missile when there's a shit load heading their way already.