Countdown to Zero - An interesting documentary I streamed on Netflix last night. I think it’s a very important topic that is often overlooked by the vast majority of people. The film details on several occasions how close we’ve come to an all out nuclear war and the potential devastation that was narrowly avoided.
I won’t say I agree with everything in the film but it is thought provoking and does have a very interesting cast that was interviewed to include Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert McNamara, Valerie Plame Wilson, Zbigniew Brzezinski and a few other heavy hitters.
I do agree that a world with zero nuclear weapons is an admirable goal. However, as long as people like ImANutJob over in Iran is building them, I’d like for us to keep a few stashed here.
I agree completely. With over 40 countries in the world having nuclear weapons how soon will we see an accidental launch? How soon will the bad guys purchase one and detonate it in one of our major cities? What will be the consequences of their actions? The film asks a lot of these questions and more and I think it’s very relevant.
When people say “just nuke’em”, when referring to our enemies, I hardly think they’ve put any thought into the matter and the aftermath of actually using a nuclear weapon against another nation. The consequences, and retaliation, from actually firing a nuclear weapon and the resulting chaos and insurrection would be biblical.
I used to think that while 0 nukes might be ideal, it would be practically impossible. The biggest thing I took away from this documentary is the analogy drawn between nuclear weapons and chemical/biological weapons.
If the mass majority of nations signed on and with strict and invasive inspection procedures, nuclear weapons could be similarly taboo.
Is it the best idea? Who knows.
Would it take a long time and be very difficult? Most certainly.
Is this a topic which deserves long and hard consideration even though few people give it any? Absolutely.
Certainly an interesting movie, definitely worth the queue slot.
I don’t see any way to achieve zero nukes since nukes can be made as small as an artillery shell or a backpack or a standard aircraft bomb. Thus it is completely unverifiable.
There is no way to reliably insure that all have been eliminated. The country that claimed that they eliminated them and did not would be the world’s sole nuclear power. I don’t see any country trusting everyone else to this extent.
As somebody who worries about things like asteroids… methinks that there is an extremely remote possibility that thermonuclear warheads might potentially be what (ironically) keeps the human race extant.
Nukes will always have their place. The idea of zero nukes its retarded, and putting the lives of perhaps billions in jeopardy.
Without nukes we would have had at least 1 if not 2-3 large WW2 style wars since WW2. Nukes make people not do things they wouldn’t have thought twice of 70 years ago.
But chemical weapons aren’t nearly as decisive and devasting as nukes.
If they were, we could have dropped one or two chemical bombs and forced Japan to surrender. So a hidden cache of chemical weapons are not going to have the effect. Plus there is a worry that if any country uses large scale chemical weapons against us we could move up the WMD scale to nukes.
How much damage would it have done if Sadam Husein managed to hit a base in Saudi Arabia with a missile with a chemical warhead? Compare that to if he hit it with a nuke.
Though its inconvenient and slows you down, encumbers you, and greatly increases fatigue, you can wear protective gear that deals with chemical weapons. Not so with nukes.
Pandora was let out. You can’t put her back in. And while our nuclear stockpile has been a great deterrence measure. We would be naive to think that all other countries would give up this power. It makes a shit 3rd world country get notice and standing in the world. Now why would they give that up when it gets them a seat at the head dinner table with the adults? Our problem is that we have this power and are too afraid to use it…again! Other nations are not so afraid to “let one fly”, if they feel the need. Not to mention most other nations fail safes are virtually non existent.
Nukes will always be that 1000 lb Gorilla just waiting in the corner at the party ready to act a fool. We just need to make sure he is doped up with thorazine and haldol, sitting in the corner licking his nuts forever.:big_boss:
Did anyone else watch the film? The part with Gorbachev was very interesting and in fact we’re very lucky we didn’t have all out nuclear war with the Russians.
Irish, that’s the post where I gave up on this thread. It seems that in every other forum, people hold up this ideal that unless you have experience with the issue at hand or know what the hell you’re talking about, you tend to stay quiet and read and educate yourself. But in GD the rule appears to be off the cuff reactions which can only make sense if the person making them hasn’t even read the OP, let alone the rest of the thread (and hoping that they might spend 30 seconds reading the IMDB summary is completely foolish).
With ARs it’s all about hands-on experience, extensive research, and real-world testing. With GD: if it’s in line with your political ideology, you blindly support it; if it’s not, spit out a couple one-liners that may or may not have anything to do with the topic.
The Cold War had a lot of close calls but it would have been a hot war without them. No doubt about that. The only thing that prevented a third world war was we were both nuclear at that point. Instead of fighting each other we played proxy wars.
And yes nukes are a huge risk in our future but getting rid of them puts the world at even bigger risk. We cannot simply disarm ourselves of nuclear weapons.
They are the ones who believe they can turn wishful thinking into reality. ‘Let’s agree to get rid of nukes and everyone will go along and abide by it and the nukes will go away,’ just like ‘let’s outlaw firearms and they will go away.’