For anyone growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, the threat of nuclear war was something that was always hiding in the background while we got on with everyday life. That thing that was so horrific, so unimaginable, that few of us dwelled on it, lest we allow it to consume our lives.
But one could barely stop thinking about the threat it posed. After all, the end of civilization is no small thing. Through high school and college, I often wondered what the point was of anything. Why get an education? Why apply myself at all? Why worry about a career? I mean, we’ll all just wind up dead or living in some post apocalyptic hell, right?
Well, that turned out to be false. Don’t get me wrong, the threat was there, it just never got to the point where we destroyed the planet.
MAD, or mutual assured destruction saw to it that no sane person pushed that button. There was no way to win a war with nuclear weapons since your country would also be destroyed, even if you launched a first strike. Sure, you could take out all the missile silos (highly unlikely), all the bombers (also unlikely), but buried deep beneath the ocean were (and still are) submarines, equipped with half the country’s nuclear weapons (at least in the case of the US – I assume it’s the same for Russia). These subs are deployed full time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Their location is highly classified and is constantly changing. Their single purpose is to lay in wait until needed, then to launch a strike against the enemy that would level the entire country.
“Yes, you may have destroyed us, but here comes your destruction and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.” Yeah, that kind of thing.
Any sane person or country would think twice about using nuclear weapons given that their own destruction is assured. Even if they survived the initial blasts, most people would die from radiation and starvation within weeks. If you survived, there would be nothing left. No running water, electricity, emergency services, and very little food.
As if that weren’t enough, criminals would likely kill you for anything you had. There would be no police or any rule of law. Anarchy and chaos would ensue. Rape, pillage and plunder would be the order of the day – the strongest (and more ruthless) would take over.
As if that weren’t enough, if you survived all that, the debris thrown into the atmosphere from a thousand warheads would ensure a nuclear winter where most plants and animals would die. Truly an extinction event to rival all previous extinction events.
The end of the human race.
That’s why I was shocked to hear about Russia’s doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons. Apparently, it allows them to be used in a first strike capacity, depending on the circumstances.
WTF?
How crazy has this world become when that’s even discussed as an option. Wars are fought because someone wants something. Using nuclear weapons is paramount to a murder/suicide. No one wins. No one proves a point. No one gains an advantage. There’s no one left to claim victory.
For me, I still believe nuclear weapons will never be used. Still, there is a part that isn’t as sure as I was this time last year. Yes, it’s insane, but for all our intelligence, we humans can be primitive and unpredictable.
