Nuclear Weapons.

At least if there's an apocalypse, I hope it's all cool and dramatic like Jericho.

I like that show, but man that's the most unlikely group of characters to end up in a backwater Kansas town.

^^^ A number of which have been unaccounted for since the collapse of the USSR.

I had to go looking for this in the news. It's not been on TV, and it dissapeared off the BBC news homepage, yesterday, where it was only a minor story anyway.

NATO exercises in Georgia - 'A dangerous move'

This would have been 'top of the pile' news years ago, why is the media so coy about reporting things like this now?



Edited by Blacksword - April 19 2009 at 02:53

^^^ Indeed and it's clear to see why Russia are hanging out in the arctic so much..

Battle for resources..

Edited by Blacksword - April 17 2009 at 13:33

Vibrationbaby wrote: There was another story I heard about a B-52 carrying nukes that accidentally flew into Russian airspace back in the 80s ( I was in Australia ) during a SAC exercise and it was a Russian air force general who realised that it was an error because they were monitoring the exercise and prevented the scrambling of Russian interceptors or the firing of missiles thus potentially averting a third world war. Funny because they used to always do it to us on almost a weekly basis  and all we`d do is intercept them ( delayed intercepts ) ,  take pictures of them, wave to them then escort them back to their airspace and from what I understand they are up to their old tricks again with their old TU-95 Bear cold war bombers in addition to the newer nuke capable TU-160 Swan supersonic bombers which is their answer to the American B-1 Lancer. In addition to a few incidents with our own CF-18s in the Canadian arctic , the Danes and British have reported a number of interceptions over the North Sea.Must be something about this on the wonderful internet somewhere.

It was reported on the BBC news (perhaps suprisingly) last year, that Russian aircraft had enetered British airspace, and that the Russians were routinely carrying out this kind of exercises. I thought that was quite a big deal, symbolically if nothing else. I assume it still goes on, but we never hear about it now.

Vibrationbaby, thats terrifying.

Not the sort of thing you hear on mainstream primetime news. Funny how we alwsys said it was nukes from the former USSR that could fall into the hands of terrorists, when it could just as well be nukes lying in the sea off the coast of some European country, courtesy of our good selves.

When I was in the air force  you wouldn`t believe some of the stories I heard about nukes. One of the types I flew carried nukes ( genie AAMs ) in the late 60s & early 70s but we only  carried 2 Falcon AAMs in my day because the Liberal government under Trudeau said no more nukes around `71 . They ( the Genies ) were nevertheless stockpiled and we were trained to fire them.

I met this US Navy pilot once down in Florida and he told me that there are nukes scattered all over the Pacific ocean floor from crashes and accidents. One particular incident he related to me was about a A-4 Skyhawk with a nuke on it that rolled off the deck of a carrier intact as result of a handling mishap in the Sea Of Japan in the early 70s. They were unable to recover the nuke and the a/c because the water was too deep so they left the a/c down there nuke and all. Just about 5 or 6 years ago they recovered some nukes from a  crashed B-52 bomber off the coast of Spain that went down back in the 60s!

Just makes me wonder what would happen if some rich madman salvages of one these and decides to hold the planet  hostage. Then we`d have to call in James Bond.


Edited by Vibrationbaby - April 16 2009 at 16:01

Blacksword wrote: US & Russia could probably successfully negotiate significant arms reductions, as indeed they have in the past. However, I cant see China coming along to this 'ban the bomb' party any day soon. Also, I cant imagine Iran or NK scrapping their nuclear programme, and Israel is certainly not going to give them up, while it is surrounded by countries, who they think are plotting their destruction. The technology is there. The genie is out of the bottle, and he is too fat to squeeze back in. Face it, we're stuck with them.

yep...

omri wrote: Dean wrote: The problem with MAD is it that it is not mutual, nor is it assured and only applies to superpowers that have significantly more weapons than are required. The nightmare option is not losing but winning, not dying but surviving.   Unfortunately we cannot unmake the technology, even if disarm every nation on the planet, the knowledge and raw materials to make more still exists and I don't trust any nation to dismantle their weapons and not keep the component parts hidden away.   The only reason we don't fight wars with spears and arrows is because that technology was surpassed by missiles and bullets; the only way nuclear weapons will be scrapped is when a better technology replaces them, or when we nuke ourselves back to the Stone Age and simply haven't the technology to launch any more.   We live in a world that thinks it's okay to throw lumps of depleted uranium at each other, where collateral damage is a valid military term, where terrorism and suicide bombing is the road to victory and attack is the best form of defense. Those mindsets have to change before we can consider any form of disarmament, and once we've achieved that then there is no reason to stop at just nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, it will never happen because man is a pack-animal, our nature is geared to the preservation of the "tribe" not the individual.     The question is : Do we need so many bombs ? or can we leave just some of these and at least stop producing more bombs ? How many bombs do we need to feel secure ? As tzirmay said, the Arab countrys (knowing Israel has nuclear weapon many years before Vanounou) never felt offended by that fact cause they know very well that Israel will never dare to use it.

US & Russia could probably successfully negotiate significant arms reductions, as indeed they have in the past.

However, I cant see China coming along to this 'ban the bomb' party any day soon. Also, I cant imagine Iran or NK scrapping their nuclear programme, and Israel is certainly not going to give them up, while it is surrounded by countries, who they think are plotting their destruction.

The technology is there. The genie is out of the bottle, and he is too fat to squeeze back in. Face it, we're stuck with them.