lauren@LBL-CSAM@vortex.UUCP (07/23/83)
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-CSAM> Nope, no flames. This discussion is beginning to cross into the region of POLI-SCI and out of SF-L, however. As far as I am concerned, saying that: "The only way to win this game [nuclear war] is not to play." is about as useful as saying: "The only way to stay healthy is not to get sick." Neither statement suggests a means to the desired end, or how to best handle the situations that occurred (and will probably continue to occur) that brought about the undesirable possibility in the first place. In other words, if you want to avoid war, saying "To avoid having a war, don't fight", doesn't suggest any means to deal with the disagreements, problems, and tensions that presumably brought about the potential war in the first place. I am extremely dissatisfied with the current insanity of massive nuclear buildups. On the other hand, I sure don't want the U.S. arbitrarily deciding to dismantle all of our nuclear weapons. There are lots of governments out there that aren't nearly as nice as our own, including rather small countries which might have or attain nuclear capabilities and are based on fanatical religious beliefs that might even encourage the use of such weapons. Remember the hostages? Can you imagine such a country with nuclear weapons? It'll probably happen someday, one way or another. I'm not saying that massive new missile programs are the answer by any means -- they seem like a tremendous waste of money to me. But I don't pretend to have an answer to the overall questions of how to avoid war and the potential for nuclear conflicts. In my opinion, the real danger is not of an accidental fullscale nuclear war. More likely a conventional war will get "out of hand" when one side feels that it is going to lose unless they use some "tactical" nuclear weapons. There's no telling what would happen after that. It is just unrealistic to hope or expect everyone to destroy their nuclear weapon capabilities and also "forget" how to build them in the future! As long as *anyone* has them, many governments are going to want them. As I say, this discussion probably should move over to POLI-SCI if we're going to continue it in its current direction. --Lauren--