[snowman]

Did you know that there are people that were at ground zero in Japan that survived? Some of them are still alive. A nuke attack would be bad, very very bad, but probably not the end of the world, only the end of the world as we know it. Radiation is way overblown in terms of its danger. Its sort of like a perverse lottery. The larger the dose (the number of tickets) the more likely you are to "win", ie die. But like any lottery there are those that never win, in this case they get to live. I have a minor in nuclear physics and basic understanding of what happens to people as a result of radiation exposure. Most of the radiation scares from things like Three Mile Island are a total joke, no one will ever be able to measure the result. The other extreem, like down town Hershoma, is a bit differen't, most will die, but NOT ALL. Any nuke attack on the US would probably produce a large number of dead, an equal number of seriously affected people, a larger number of people in a grey area, where you would have to monitor the statistics to tell the result, and a very large number of people who would have no difference in their life spans and disease.


Nuclear winter could only result if everyone detonated all of their nukes, quite unlikely, and even then, given the volcanic effects of the past (1000s of equivalent nukes), its not a sure thing.

The only way we can win in the game of nuke standoffs is to have a CREDIBLE response. The enemy must know that we will respond with a total response that will destroy his entire country, otherwise our deterent will fall flat and we will suffer. At some point we will say Screw their innocent people, no more of our innocent people will die. Just like Dresden. We are the same people, we will do it again. We will light their air on fire, we will light their streets on fire, they will cease to exist.