13th March 2015, 10:36 AM
Saw this old thread.
I think today no one in either party would ever suggest using nuclear weapons. No matter the political affiliation, only the most extreme of extremists would ever suggest using nuclear weapons in any of today's conflicts. (Those people tend to use XBox Live and suggest "turning the desert to glass" as a way to end middle east conflict. They aren't taken seriously.)
The victory against Japan was already assured, but it is certainly true the nuclear weapons ended it faster.
Something much bigger came out of their use in war than the end of the war though. The most positive thing we can say about the use of nuclear weapons is that they made the entire world terrified of nuclear weapons. It seems they had to be used at least once for the world to learn we should never ever use them. (Though, we still haven't learned that it may be a good idea to not even have use them as a threat.) It's been suggested that one reason we don't see any alien communication out there is because most civilizations blow themselves up. Maybe we got lucky, only one side inventing them at the very end of a war that was sure to be won anyway and using them anyway taught us the lesson before we had the chance to destroy everything.
Life is sure complicated, isn't it?
I think today no one in either party would ever suggest using nuclear weapons. No matter the political affiliation, only the most extreme of extremists would ever suggest using nuclear weapons in any of today's conflicts. (Those people tend to use XBox Live and suggest "turning the desert to glass" as a way to end middle east conflict. They aren't taken seriously.)
The victory against Japan was already assured, but it is certainly true the nuclear weapons ended it faster.
Something much bigger came out of their use in war than the end of the war though. The most positive thing we can say about the use of nuclear weapons is that they made the entire world terrified of nuclear weapons. It seems they had to be used at least once for the world to learn we should never ever use them. (Though, we still haven't learned that it may be a good idea to not even have use them as a threat.) It's been suggested that one reason we don't see any alien communication out there is because most civilizations blow themselves up. Maybe we got lucky, only one side inventing them at the very end of a war that was sure to be won anyway and using them anyway taught us the lesson before we had the chance to destroy everything.
Life is sure complicated, isn't it?
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)