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From: wall@ucbvax.ARPA (Steve Wall)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Politics, morals and nukes
Message-ID: <2529@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 13-Oct-84 23:11:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.2529
Posted: Sat Oct 13 23:11:47 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Oct-84 01:41:25 EDT
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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I don't know much of the details about the nuclear arms race, mostly
because I get fed up with arguments like "they have 10,000 type A bombs
and we only have 6,000 type A bombs..", but someone mentioned whether
people would survive a worldwide nuclear war. The claim was that some 
people would survive, which could be true, BUT:

	If some people did survive, the world that they would find themselves
	living in would hardly resemble the world we live in now. Clearly,
	the chance of starvation from lack of food and the problems that
	would arise when the atmosphere is weakend by the nuclear exchange
	would prove disasterous for those people who did survive. Our water
	would be poisoned, our land would be poisoned, and the farming
	equipment that we use for cultivation would be destroyed during
	the exchange. Especially with our dependence on international trade 
	and exchange patterns that currently exist for much of our food, 
	would not our food supply be threatened, if not destroyed?

	Also, on a more sociological approach. Do we really think that our
	current type of government would still be intact following a nuclear
	exchange? It seems clear that most of our government institutions
	would be destroyed, and the organization that our government is
	dependent and based on would be gone. I can't imagine there being
	an emergency session of Congress called the day after a nuclear
	exhcange! Our entire government would be in shambles. There would
	be chaos everywhere.

	And lastly, those areas that were victims of the nuclear exchange
	would be useless for thousands of years. Can we live without the
	San Jouquin (sp?) Valley and the Midwest breadbasket? What about 
	the livestock that is subjected to radiation? Clearly our electrical,
	gas, and communications networks would be damaged or destroyed.


Like I said above, I don't claim to be an expert on the nuclear issue. These
thoughts come from more common sense (my common sense anyway). I don't trust
theories or predictions as to the result of a nuclear war because there are
too many factors that cannot be quantified and there is plenty of room for
error. The only way to be safe is to never let a nuclear war happen.

What was that quote from Einstein when the first atomic bomb was set
off? Something like, "Everything has changed except man's way of thinking."

Steve Wall
wall@ucbarpa
..!ucbvax!wall