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From: andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: The Nuclear Defense [sic]
Message-ID: <739@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Dec-86 18:05:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.739
Posted: Mon Dec 22 18:05:18 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Dec-86 04:35:29 EST
References: <271@van-bc.UUCP>
Reply-To: andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews)
Distribution: can
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 52

In article <271@van-bc.UUCP> sl@van-bc.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes:
>Who said anything about North America. The last two world wars were 
>started in Europe. Without a nuclear defense the third one probably
>would have started there too.

     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.

     Since you've now changed the subject to the so-called Nuclear
Defense, note that the most notable thing about said Defense is that
if it even came close to being used, either the populace would rise
up against its use, or they wouldn't and the entirety of Western
civilization [since we're using the American spellings here] would 
get blown away.

     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.
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.

     Whether or not Canada gets the NukeDef, if it ever gets used
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.

>As I stated before the Western world has agreed (can you spell NATO)

     yes    N - A - T - O

> ... to
>keep the Eastern Bloc out of Europe. The problem is we don't want to spend
>enormous amounts of money putting a large army into Europe. The result
>is the use of the Nuclear defense. 

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

     [P.S. mainly for JBR and DWA:  did you see the recent "Nancy"
in which Nancy builds a "peace shield" wall of snow to stop her
and Sluggo from throwing snowballs at each other, and then tips
the wall on top of Sluggo?  That's what I like about "Nancy"!!!
Good, TOPICAL HUMOUR!!!! :-)]

--Jamie.
...!seismo!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews
"Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful"