Comment by s_q_b | Hacker News Reader

Comment by s_q_b | Hacker News Reader

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Do you truly believe that Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union, or Imperial Japan would have hesitated for a second to use nuclear weapons if they had developed them first?

I, for one, do not.

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Sidenote:

The most remarkable aspect of the story of the atomic bomb occurred after the development of fusion weapons.

The President and his chief advisors called together a committee to determine whether to wipe out the Soviet Union. The discussion took place in the Roosevelt Room shortly following the development of the hydrogen bomb.

With its massive bomber fleet, unparalleled fusion technology, and large stockpile of fission weapons, the United States could have quite literally conquered the world.

Yet it chose not to do so. I know of no parallel in world history where such an event has occurred.

Prior to the conference, Hans Bethe of the Manhattan project wrote to the President:

"If we fight a war and win it with nuclear weapons, what history will remember is not the ideas we were fighting for, but the methods we used to accomplish them.

These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan, who brutally killed every last inhabitant of Persia."

The russians, which are not that different from URSS, if you ask me, have nuclear missiles. They haven't used them in Syria, or any other conflict that I'm aware of. They are stupid enough to have detonated the worlds largest nuclear weapon, I'll give them that (Tsar bomb).

But not on other humans. On a deserted island. We like to vilify the russians, sure we do - but when you look at the facts as they are, a very different picture comes to your eyes. Don't let those manipulative news stories fool you.

Read the history of Stalin's reaction to being told of the bomb at Yalta. He encouraged its immediate use against the Japanese Empire.

"If we fight a war and win it with nuclear weapons, what history will remember is not the ideas we were fighting for, but the methods we used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan, who brutally killed every last inhabitant of Persia."

I like this quote. What I like even more, is how just above it, you smudge the history as if they not detonated nuclear weapon on people, but they just refrained from conquering the world. Read what I said the same thread - in the end, what matter is what you actually do, not what you could have done, or what you claimed you would do.

I refer you back to my previous comment about the other regimes, and their propensity to use atomic weapons, had they developed them first.

Hell, Stalin told Truman to use it on Imperial Japan as soon as possible.

I've read the comment. Unfortunately, I lack the motivation right now to read history books, but leaving that aside, a good start would be the USA themselves to lead the way, and get rid of those weapons. Like South Africa did. We cannot plead ignorance anymore, we know they are horrible weapons by now (though, the military might call that "effective").

I know there is a plan, by which they reduce the ammount of nuclear warheads, but to me it seems like they are dragging their feets, looking suspicious on one another. Have they wished it, they would be long gone, serving as fuel in some reactor.

Getting back to North Korea - I don't think something can be done without causing a major conflict. Leaving them be is not safe either, but there must be a peaceful way. If the problem is that Kim Jong-un is paranoid and crazy - he'll die eventually, and if not provoked, I hope things go smooth.

A lot of the world revolves around trust - even if blind, stupid trust. A crazy enough guy could poison the bread in the supermaket, and there's not much one can do about it. I think this is somewhat similar.

Also, I think much of the panick arise from the fact that they don't play along with "the great american plan", like many other countries do. They are torn in their side, but so far not such a big threat.

By the great american plan I mean sharing the same system of government, signing good' ol' threaties that favor american corporations (TPP, PIPA, SOPA, and whatnot). They did a great job spreading democracy in middle east, while mostly Europe ended up taking the heat. I hope they won't start spreading democracy there as well, because pushing it by force didn't seem very effective.

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