Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.6.2.17 $; site uokvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!mhuxn!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uokvax!emks From: emks@uokvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re:Expertise:Nuclear War Casualties Message-ID: <5000122@uokvax.UUCP> Date: Sat, 1-Dec-84 14:45:00 EST Article-I.D.: uokvax.5000122 Posted: Sat Dec 1 14:45:00 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 09:06:07 EST References: <328@whuxl.UUCP> Lines: 30 Nf-ID: #R:whuxl:-32800:uokvax:5000122:000:1483 Nf-From: uokvax!emks Dec 1 13:45:00 1984 Tim writes: >There would be quite a difference between two atomic bombs and 50,000 >bombs don't you think, Kurt? Also the bombs dropped on Hiroshima >and Nagasaki were miniscule in comparison to those we have now. Both sides >possess 1 1/2 million times the destructive power of those bombs. >I think the consequences of that are quite threatening to all life on earth. >As I pointed out in an earlier article, just the radioactive fallout from >controlled atomic tests has spread radioisotopes all over the planet-- >including Antartica. We all have strontium-90 in our bones from those >atmospheric tests. What would be the ecological effects of 50,000 bombs > >tim sevener whuxl!orb Tim, that has almost nothing to do with what I said. I said that blatent use of terms like "nuclear exchange" or "use of nuclear weapons" to mean "total annihilation" is wordsmithing, order n. I agree completely that there would be QUITE a difference between WWII and now if we were to detonate 50K nuclear weapons! But, you see, that isn't my point. I meant, and still mean, that use of nuclear weapons doesn't necessarily imply that the world would simply "end." I believe nuclear weapons have kept the U.S. and the S.U. from having a direct, worldwide conflict since WW II. In the event of a W.P. invasion, I also believe that use of nuclear weapons can have precisely the effect NATO intends: to control escalation on terms which are favorable to the Atlantic Alliance. kurt