Thread: Future Wars, With Nukes?

Hey, the last time of a "world-wide" war, I think the A-Bomb was barely off the production line and was rushed into usage at the end of WW2. But now, what with Russia, America, Britain etc all having enough stockpiles to destroy the whole planet tenfold or more, what would a Third world war be like? Would it be who could build the most fall-out bunkers?

When would a country decide they would launch a nuclear attack? Say for example america and russia went to war, and the americans were at the gates of Moscow, would Russia risk immediate comeback by launching a few nukes at washington, or would they let themselves be over-run.



And if Germany were to declare war ever again on anyone, or expand..would most countries come down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks or not?

Your question is based on some pretty outmoded views of warfare and politics. For any army (other than the Russians) to be "at the gates of Moscow" implies that you are imagining conventional territorial warfare. There would be little or no point in occupying Russia (or, conversely, the United States) since the invading power would have virtually no hope of holding the territory together. Similarly, you make a (slightly racist) assumption that Germany is prone to expansionism. This is extremely dubious, to say the least, since territorial expansion would be impractical, useless, and counter to national interest. The world doesn't work like that any more, and the more outmoded our views about our neighbours are, the less likely we are to sustain peace.

The question of what the earth would be like after a nuclear war on this scale remains useful and largely unanswerable; it would depend on the number and impact of the weapons used. The planet could easily become uninhabitable; alternatively, limited nuclear strikes could destroy civilised life in the West and leave other parts of the planet relatively unaffected, or at least able to carry on while Western society collapsed.

In any case, the policies of the nuclear powers during the Cold War was known as MAD - mutually assured destruction - and much theorising went on about whether these weapons could ever be used and, if not, whether they were actually any kind of deterrent. In the post-Cold War world, with much more fluid relationships between world powers, we don't really know for sure how plausible a nuclear strike could be. It depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are, I guess.

In any case, you can't really argue that having these weapons in the first place is a threat to human security. We should really be out there campaigning for mutual disarmament agreements. Reagan and Gorbachev managed it, so there should be plenty of hope for us yet.

The problem is the religious nut jobs. They want the world to end because they thinks it's prophecy - This is ALL religions, they're all nutso.

All countries having nukes is the reason why no one is launching it at each other. Its like you drop it on us and we will drop one on you. Sort of like the cuban missile crisis where as if they launched it at us we were going to launch it at them. It's the people who have nothing to lose that worries me.

I dont think russia would because if they launch us, they are comiting suicide pretty much.

I don't think germany is in the war business anymore.

There will not be a nuclear war between the great powers as they all have enough sense not to want the whole world to end. Germany has a load of USAF and RAF bases all over it and they don't have nukes, the US and the UK won't let them. If there was another big war then it would be between China and America probably with involvement of the UK, Russia and Israel. Let's hope it never happens in our lifetime but the side of the US and the UK would win, people just don't notice how lethal the US and UK are in a war, but it will not happen for a long time, because every nuclear power knows that if they launch them first then the other countries will launch back, nobody will ever use them.