I've got an idea

[minionofmidas]

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A once in a lifetime moment! Now don't do it again, please.

But seriously ... while certainly a far more reasonable assumption (and far better supported by the evidence around us) for nukes and countries than for guns and individuals, it throws up a number of problems ... not to mention undermines US, and First World in general hegemony and economic status, so it's not in your best interest.

[minionofmidas]

it throws up a number of problems ...

Nuclear war for instance

Actually, that's not that bloody likely ... as viz. the number of nuclear wars we've had so far.

[minionofmidas]

Actually, that's not that bloody likely ... as viz. the number of nuclear wars we've had so far.

Yes, but that's with only a handful of countries having nuclear weapons, all believing in the MAD theory. Which breaks down if just one government decides it's not a problem.

Yeah, but why should a government do so? The only not-quite-100%-absurd theory I can come up with is if the government a) doesn't care one jot about their population, place in the history books, etc b) they themselves, and every individual that they do care about, are out of the country by the time they strike. Long odds against that ever happening. All countries that have obtained or tried to obtain nukes up to now, or that is trying to do so now, have done so out of paranoia and/or justified fear of attack, with the exception of the US (didn't know what they were doing) and arguably the UK and France (Useless effort at conservation of former superpower status). Not in order to attack other people.

[minionofmidas]

Well, I'm fairly sure the US was aware of the German atomic programme.

IIRC that was started later than the US one. Anyways it had hardly gotten very far by the time the war was over.

Al - of course it's still "more likely" ... it's also more likely that I will strangle you if we ever meet than if we never meet, but that alone is no reason not to ever meet anybody.

A situation as in Somalia is the kind of problem I was thinking of when I said it throws up a no. of problems, though... or just the fact that countries are, in essence, artificial entities whose borders can change at very short notice.

[minionofmidas]

Should Sealand get their own nukes?

Oh yeah, another problem... places like Monaco or the Vatican might hope to be spared a retaliatory nuke because that would also certainly damage neighboring countries.