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Comment by rwissmann | Hacker News Reader

There has been no large scale war between major powers since WWII, let alone between the world's leading superpowers.

I guess the scale of the war and whether it deserves the moniker of a World War depends on your geo-political perspective. Both U.S. and Russia, are involved in military operations all over the world, and it's a little silly to call that a "desirable state of affairs" just because they're not fighting each other.

Make no mistake, I'm not carrying water for Teller in this thread or defending Jane Fonda. I do think Teller was sort of a nutcase, and Fonda was definitely a traitor. Frankly we're all lucky to be alive after some of the crap that was done in the name of "strategic defense," and it's indeed tragic that countless victims of the superpowers' proxy wars can't say the same.

But deterring a third world war is not one of those things that's subject to moral relativism. You seriously need to spend some time talking with WWII vets, while we still have them with us.

We are currently living in the most peaceful time in human history. That's an objective fact based on annual deaths from warfare, not a subjective opinion or perspective.

Mostly peace is to peace what an electric chair is to a chair.

What are you, a bumper sticker?

We're seeing the lowest level of conflict in history and you're still unimpressed? Does it kill you that much to admit that MAD is working?

I think the difference is general mobilization vs a low intensity conflict.

Proxy-wars are arguable large scale wars between super powers.

I think a war is only large scale if it uses a significant portion of the participant's manufacturing abilities. There are no such wars currently.

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