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From: sl@van-bc.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: The Nuclear Defense [sic]
Message-ID: <272@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Dec-86 03:27:12 EST
Article-I.D.: van-bc.272
Posted: Tue Dec 23 03:27:12 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Dec-86 19:06:45 EST
References: <271@van-bc.UUCP> <739@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne)
Distribution: can
Organization: Public Access Network, Vancouver, BC.
Lines: 63

>
>     And probably would have ended with a lot less loss of life than
>a nuclear war would, even if it went on twice as long as the Second
>World War.
>
That's not the issue. The Nuclear Defense is not against people once
they have started a war, it is a defense AGAINST people starting wars.
By definition once you started to use them they have failed.

>     Thus the Nuclear Defense is a massive waste of resources, since
>we have more of it than we could possibly use in the first place.
>The two superpowers should try to get away from it as much as
>possible, and no more world powers should try to get into it.

The two superpowers are trying to do just that. It's just that politics
and practicalities keep getting in the way. 

The Russian's don't trust the Americans, who keep worring about how 
they are going to fight the Russian conventional forces.  I doubt very
much if the US will seriously consider doing more than just stopping the
buildup until they see drastic reductions in the Soviet forces.

>However, for forty years either one side or the other, or both,
>has been unwilling to stop the ridiculous buildup by seriously
>negotiating for even MUTUAL disarmament.  This is the main problem
>here.
>

Thats right, mutual disarmanment of the conventional forces that both have,
especially the Soviets. 

>we'll all be blown away anyway.  The best thing Canada could do
>right now is to build up conventional civil defense, refuse to do
>anything more with nukes, and try to put some real effort into
>negotiating disarmament between the US and the USSR.
>

Absolutely agreed!

>    Endanger the future of life on the planet for cost-effectiveness.
>Sounds just like the military mentality.
>

Right, so lets all write our politicians that we want Canada to quadruple
our defense spending -- say over the next five years. That should at least
get us up the NATO norm. Then we can convince all of NATO to do the same
and presto an army the size of the Soviets. Then maybe we could get rid
all our nuclear weapons. Then instead of worring about an event with fairly
low probability of happening (all out nuclear war), we can worry about an
event with fairly good chances of happening (conventional war). 

An think of all the employment we would have generated. Lets face it armies
generate a lot of spin off benefits in terms of jobs, technology etc :). We
could even bring back conscription to get people to join ;).




-- 
Stuart Lynne  	Public Access Network - Vancouver BC 	
UUCP:		ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vi!van-bc!sl
Mail:		225B Evergreen Dr., Port Moody, BC, Canada, V3H 1S1
Phone: 		604-937-7532