orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (03/24/86)
> [] > >> > Meaning they have, in effect, great incentive to produce 20 times as > >> > many missiles. > >> > >> One can have the incentive, but lack the ability. > >> David Olson Unfortunately, David, the Soviets do *have* the ability to deploy hundreds more weapons than they currently have deployed. They are restrained from doing so by the SALT treaties according to a report by the Federation of American Scientists. Which is one reason the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged Reagan to continue complying with the unratified SALT II treaty. > > But, let's assume that you think they might attack. > > As I see it, that is like saying that people should not put locks on > their home. After all, if a burglar saw you doing that, it might > provoke him into attacking your house now, while he still can. > > But, let's further assume that such logic was valid. Suppose there was > some form of disarmament imposed on both sides. What is the difference > between someone thinking, "I had better attack while my weapons are still > effective!", and "I had better attack while I still have weapons!"? > > David Olson The analogy is *not* like locks on a house - locks on a house do not threaten anyone's extinction. Rather the analogy that is more appropriate is a *tank* - certainly one can say the armor on a tank is "defensive" but its purpose is to protect an *offensive* capability. Tanks are hardly innocuous as those claiming Warsaw Pact superiority to NATO repeatedly tell us. The primary purpose of a Start Wars system cannot be the protection of *people* - when asked Start Wars proponents like Lt. Gen. Abrahamson admit that. It is protection of *offensive missiles*. There is no way Start Wars would prevent millions of deaths in a nuclear war. Besides the fact that 5% of either side's *present* nuclear arsenal is enough to obliterate the other side's population, there is the danger (seldom mentioned) of scads of plutonium being released throughout the Earth from the destruction of the other side's nuclear weapons. Those weapons contain about 100,000 pounds of plutonium. Just a few pounds of plutonium could kill everyone on earth. tim sevener whuxn!orb