majka@ubc-visi (11/22/83)
From: Marc Majka <majka@ubc-vision.UUCP> <houxz!halle1> says: "Since the missiles will be gone by the time they are hit, why should they be targets?" Although what he says makes sense, I am under the impression that silos are important targets. In the case of a first strike by the people who live over there, the silos are targets because the people over there don't want the people over here to fire any of them back. The missiles over here may not all have been fired by the time the silos are hit, so a few of the people over there might exist (I won't say live) for a while longer. The same is true of a first strike by the people over here. Silos will still be targets in case not all of them were fired. The only alternative is to make sure that when you decide to push the button, you make sure that you fire them all (even on Launch on Warning), and make sure the other people know. This allows everybody to retarget all their bombs to cause the most possible damage to the other people (after all, they won't get a second chance). Since ALL the missiles are going to be fired, and they ALL are targeted to do the most possible damage, we are then assured that we will have THE WORST POSSIBLE nuclear war. I'm not sure I like that alternative.