Who Will be First to Go Nuclear

[P.J. Denyer]

As a taxpayer, I demand that we use our nukes! We paid for them, we must use them!

Is this cribbed from an advance copy of Trump's next speech?

ETA: Of course not, Trump doesn't pay any tax. My bad!

 

[Roger Ramjets]

As a taxpayer, I demand that we use our nukes! We paid for them, we must use them!

We are already 'using' them. The purpose of nukes is to act as a deterrent. If actual nuclear war breaks out then they have failed and were not worth the money.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

We are already 'using' them. The purpose of nukes is to act as a deterrent. If actual nuclear war breaks out then they have failed and were not worth the money.

ah, my bad.

I thought their purpose is to shovel taxpayer money to defence contractors.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Which paranoid tyrant will be first?

Netenyahu, he's closest to the Fuhrerbunker stage of the tyrant lifecycle.

 

[mumblethrax]

We are already 'using' them. The purpose of nukes is to act as a deterrent. If actual nuclear war breaks out then they have failed and were not worth the money.

Thank God for nuclear weapons. Without them, we might have had a nuclear war.

 

[theprestige]

Thank God for nuclear weapons. Without them, we might have had a nuclear war.

Thank God for US, UK, and French nuclear weapons, anyway.

 

[Beerina]

In practice, they protect dictatorships against getting their ass handed to them in conventional wars. Should the idiot start one, and find tanks rolling up his driveway, well, like a spoiled brat they will destroy everything rather than give up their palaces atop piles of bones.

 

[Chanakya]

Fun fact: The US has possessed a nuclear arsenal, without using it, longer than any other nation on earth.

Anyway, it's good we've addressed these tangential points.

Only if there's some difference between "nuclear" and "atomic", or something like that

The US has, in fact, possessed nuclear/atomic weapons for the shortest time before immediately deploying them

 

[Chanakya]

Which paranoid tyrant will be first?

going with iran at #1

and putin at #2, if pushed too hard

no one sane will do it, that's for sure, either some crazy, or someone driven to complete desperation and left no options (in their mind, per their way of thinking)




...would have gone with netanyahu, had he been in desperate straits, but he isn't, so he isn't going to

that ******* would gladly burn the world down to save his corrupt ass from jail, and to hold on to power and a respectability he does not deserve ...but as things stand, he has no need to go nuclear

 

[Trausti]

I believe a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan is the most likely.

If it were to happen (and I don't think it will), these two would also be my choice.

 

[theprestige]

I don't think it's gonna be India-Pakistan. Neither really poses an existential threat to the other, nor does either gain any significant strategic advantage from using nukes.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

The Doomsday Clock was last updated in January.

Doomsday Clock

I'm waiting for an update.

And the article at the link is worth a read if only to see what the experts have to say.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I don't think it's gonna be India-Pakistan. Neither really poses an existential threat to the other, nor does either gain any significant strategic advantage from using nukes.

They're also adjacent, I can't believe that doesn't merit at least some consideration.

 

[Delvo]

The Doomsday Clock...

And the article at the link is worth a read if only to see what the experts have to say.

The "Doomsday Clock" is one of the most monumentally stupid & condescending exercises in hyperbolic preachy pretentiosity in the modern world. Anybody who participates in it puts a serious hole in his/her claim to be an "expert" in anything other than self-aggrandizing look-at-me melodrama.

 

[shemp]

I cast a write-in vote for the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

 

[arthwollipot]

I cast a write-in vote for the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

Nobody else has the Q-bomb.

 

[Roboramma]

The US has possessed a nuclear arsenal, without using it, longer than any other nation on earth.

Only if there's some difference between "nuclear" and "atomic", or something like that

Are you actually disputing the factual nature of thepretige's claim? The period in which the US has possessed nuclear weapons and not used them is longer than that for any other nation. Whether or not you find this fact meaningful is a separate question from whether or not its accurate.

Want to test its accuracy? Just ask, how long is that period for the US? It stretches from just after the bombs were dropped in 1945 to today, so ~79 years.

Is there another nation that has both possessed nuclear weapons and not used them for more than 79 years?

The US has, in fact, possessed nuclear/atomic weapons for the shortest time before immediately deploying them

Yes, this is also a fact. Both are true. It's up to you to determine the meaning of those facts.

 

[dudalb]

Think you're a bit late for that ... Word War II was already nuclear with the USofA being the first to use nuclear weapons: Nuclear warfare^WP. Alas many (most?) seem to forget that.

BS. I think we all know the OP was referrng to next use of nukes.
And nobody has forgotten about Hiroshima.

 

[dudalb]

Another fun fact: The US is the only nation on earth who has actually used nuclear weapons against an enemy during wartime.

And it worked.
It was the best of the avaialble options to the US...all of the other would have ended up killing more Japanese.

 

[Trausti]

And it worked.

Not only that, but pretty much any other power in WWII would have used it if they had it.