atomic weapons: good or bad

it seems like an obvious question but is it ? the world was at war and not likely to escape that fate anytime soon, I'm not talking about ww2 but ww3. the u.s. and russia were squaring off for the next round and china was feeling muscular too , there were lost of hot spots that were over shadowed by the cold war between the u.s. and Russia but the cold war stayed cold and so far we have avoided ww3 , so far. now with out the atomic boogie man to scare us straight as it were what do you think would have happened ? so are atomic weapons god or bad.

I think in a way they are good as they have reduced the frequency of wars. I think there was a chart with war time deaths and it went back for centuries and raised steadily into the 20th century where it began to grow sharply and then dropped WAY off in 1945.

The advent of the atomic bomb works in scaring people until they become complacent. Thats why I support nuclear testing, .

Nukes, like all weapons, are as 'good' as the men who wield them.
US?
Ok, I can live with that.

Iran?(!)
I might as well convert to Islam, because then at least no one in the west would have the balls to nuke me before I can get to shelter.

Originally posted by HAL the bot
Nukes, like all weapons, are as 'good' as the men who wield them.

Hal got it right that atomic weapons are only as good as the people who wield them. They are a great deterrent for war, but when one kid on the playground has something, all the rest of the kids want it too.

Same principal for nukes.

We keep flaunting our dominance through posession of nukes, now everyone and their brother wants the bomb.

Eventually this cancels out, and then everyone that has the bomb decides to use them at the same time.

When that happens, say goodbye to humanity.

I consider nuclear weapons to be good, when they have peaceful uses, such as terrestrial
defence (such as blowing up certain asteroids), and, given the right technology,
the use in civil projects, that is developing a nuke clean enough that it could be used to do
something like make a new, bigger panama canal.


In general I think we should have a few hundred low to medium yield nuclear weapons
in the world for the above things, but overall I consider them bad as being things that are
meant as a last effort use as a weapons of mass destruction.

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
I think in a way they are good as they have reduced the frequency of wars. I think there was a chart with war time deaths and it went back for centuries and raised steadily into the 20th century where it began to grow sharply and then dropped WAY off in 1945.

The advent of the atomic bomb works in scaring people until they become complacent. Thats why I support nuclear testing,

.

iawtc.

I would like to play devils advocate on this one. I believe that nuclear weapons were a bad ideal. Here is the reason why. First is once you have it, it would mean that anyone else, especially those who do not like you, will want one too. And if that is not bad enough then you spark an arms race to create bigger and bigger weapons to get more bang for your buck. Most of the technology though it improves is no longer needed, because in order to have a viable nuclear weapon that is a valid threat, is that you have to use it. Then there is the question once it is no longer needed what do you do with the nuclear material? It is like the bullets of a gun, you take dismantel the bullet, but then what do you do with bullet that is so toxic that the dust will kill anything it comes in contact with? If you believe that nuclear weapons are a good idea, have you considered what happens in the event of either an accident or someone using it for their own purposes?

not good, one day some one will use them, and it will be the decision
of a few to kill millions, perhaps billions

not on a battlefield but in a city , in minutes
too easy to kill millions/billions with

at least the horrors of a conventional war would eventually lead folks
to end the war without all the radioactive waste

Bad. No they are evil I tell you: evil.

Sooner or later someone will let one go, wether it's launched by a country against another country or a dirty sneaky little one that crosses a boarder and is hidden in a coke machine at a ball game, Tom clancy stylee. When and it is a when it happens the whole 'MAD' (mutually assured dumbness)thing will go bananas and if someone does crawl out of a hole 50 years from then, it will be no good. As the whole world will be about as usable as a Chinese public toilet.

Unless of course you are a cockroach.

Now I love weapons, and I love the military and hope to spend the rest of my life in it and associated with it. However, I never liked nukes, why? Because, any nuke that hits any enemy WILL 100% kill innocents, too. The means of getting it to its target may be accurate, but once it goes off, it will NOT tell friend from foe, it anilhilates everything within a huge many mile radius (um, are all the enemies gonna be gathered in there without any innocents?) and furthermore release dangerous radiation waves that if they don't kill you, they'll make you wish you were dead. I always hoped the militaries of the world will find a better replacement, at least something that doesn't release those damn radioactive waves. This weapon was MADE to cause mass destruction, which is not a good thing. Even the neutron bomb sounds better.

If you wanna know what nukes do, look at what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Bravo Russian soldier.

Unfortunately the Atomic Bomb was born at a time of great evil during the Second World War, when they were seen as an answer to a greater evil.

Germany, USA, UK, Japan and Russia were all racing to build an atomic weapon in WW2. Once it was born there was no turning back.

All in all it was safer when there were two main super powers USA and USSR. They kept little countries in check.

Now the danger is that total fanatics have the science and technology to build nukes. With fanatical Governments to back them, people who know no limits to their evil are acquiring nuclear technology.

These evil people threaten all humanity.

The danger is that the inhibition against using nukes in the cold war has vanished in the face of people who see no issue other than their own hatred and desire for martyrdom.

I make another point. I hope there is a small nuclear engagement with one of these small fanatical countries. I hope it scares and shocks the world enough to ban all nuclear weapons, forever.

I make another point. Uranium mining should be banned forever too. It should be against international law to mine, refine and enrich uranium except under UN control. I say uranium powered nuclear power stations should be banned and we should switch to Thorium ADS powered nuclear power, since Thorium can not be used for nuclear weaponry.

While I agree with your second point, your first point is too harsh. There is no country made up of ONLY bad guys, so such an attack would kill many innocents and have a very bad effect, especially in giving birth too many new terrorists content on vengeance for the lose of their innocent loved ones.

Hell, I'm surprised Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn't produce anti-American terrorists after the bombings.


Yeah, the superpowers cannot just destroy their nukes, they have to make equally powerful replacements (at least without the radioactivity) first, then dispose of their nukes, so smaller countries don't get out of hand.

There is no country made up of ONLY bad guys, so such an attack would kill many innocents and have a very bad effect,

Quite correct. Hitler was the leader of a minor party in the German Parliament. Look what the Nazis did.

In Iran the radicals there are only a minority. I know Iranians living in my country and they are very genuine friendly cultured people. I don't advocate leveling whole countries.

I agree with you that the consequences of any small nuclear war would be terrible. Unfortunately World War 3 started with the invasion of Iraq and now the consequences of that war are already escalating.

The point I tried to make is that human nature being what it is, nuclear weapons will not be outlawed until all humanity is shocked by their use.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not do this. So many people of so many nations were so embittered with Japan that instead of shocking people, it was seen as justice.

I personally see radical islamists in Iran as no different from the evil of National Socialism in the 1930s. As for the consequences, they have already begun since Iraq's invasion.

[edit on 16-6-2007 by sy.gunson]