I Miss MAD

Gusington · February 16, 2012, 11:38:52 AM

Good article from BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17026538

In a way, I miss the security of Mutually Assured Destruction. With the rise of religiously influenced whackjobs as well as nutty regimes like Iran who are working hard to get The Bomb, I would give anything to go back to the days of the Evil Empire. I agree with the article when it states that there was more stability then.

The 'slippery slope' the world appears headed down, the idea of a limited nuclear exchange and regional arms races, as well as nuclear terrorism...makes my head spin.

MIGMaster · February 16, 2012, 11:57:13 AM

Yeah - it was a bit more simple too - there were just two players NATO - Warsaw Pact. It was good clean terror. None of this asymmetrical shit !

It's amazing how much it influenced our cultures - I know it sounds weird but I'm kinda glad I grew up in that era !

Centurion40 · February 16, 2012, 12:02:41 PM

It gives you stories to tell your kids, and grandkids.

I don't miss the fear and sleepless nights (thank you 'The Day After'), but I did miss the opportunity to get a posting to Germany.

For you yungin's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After

Gusington · February 16, 2012, 12:07:33 PM

^There was a letter campaign in my elementary school when The Day After came out strongly urging parents of young kids to not let them watch. To this day I have not seen it! I was 8-9 when it was released.

Centurion40 · February 16, 2012, 12:11:54 PM

Quote from: Gusington on February 16, 2012, 12:07:33 PM
^There was a letter campaign in my elementary school when The Day After came out strongly urging parents of young kids to not let them watch. To this day I have not seen it! I was 8-9 when it was released.

It frightened the crap out of me.

Barthheart · February 16, 2012, 12:18:34 PM

Quote from: Centurion40 on February 16, 2012, 12:11:54 PM
Quote from: Gusington on February 16, 2012, 12:07:33 PM
^There was a letter campaign in my elementary school when The Day After came out strongly urging parents of young kids to not let them watch. To this day I have not seen it! I was 8-9 when it was released.

It frightened the crap out of me.

Ditto! :o

Gusington · February 16, 2012, 12:29:41 PM

^Maybe I'm better off for not having seen it at 8. I think I can handle it now though. Maybe.

Centurion40 · February 16, 2012, 12:33:42 PM

Quote from: Gusington on February 16, 2012, 12:29:41 PM
^Maybe I'm better off for not having seen it at 8. I think I can handle it now though. Maybe.

And now that it's not likely to go down like that.

Gusington · February 16, 2012, 12:45:52 PM

I don't know...does it really matter, if you're being nuked, how it's delivered? We're all toast in the end.

Barthheart · February 16, 2012, 12:55:23 PM

Maybe... but the part that really scared me was the way a seemingly small thing in Europe rapidly spun completely out of control in a couple of days and ended everything.... I was 18 and it really hit home how MAD worked ... and then suddenly didn't. :o

Centurion40 · February 16, 2012, 01:00:55 PM

Quote from: Gusington on February 16, 2012, 12:45:52 PM
I don't know...does it really matter, if you're being nuked, how it's delivered? We're all toast in the end.

Maybe. The good folks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki seem to be faring well these days, despite fears that a nuke site would be uninhabitable for centuries. And then when you think of the thousands of nuke test firings that have occurred in the 20th century... well, we're still around. ???

You know, I'm at the age where I'd be more likely to sit on my roof and watch the show, rather than hide in the basement and hope that I'll survive it all. Weird.

LongBlade · February 16, 2012, 01:15:32 PM

What the radicals are eventually going to get isn't MAD but rather SIAD - Self-Inflicted Assured Destruction.

They will regrettably eventually cross a line that no one will tolerate.

Then they will come to know first-hand the meaning of nuclear winter. Preferably we'll just use neutron bombs so as not to have the fallout.

The survivors can then pick up the rocks and start flinging them at each other, as they have done since time began.

Centurion40 · February 16, 2012, 01:22:08 PM

Quote from: LongBlade on February 16, 2012, 01:15:32 PM
What the radicals are eventually going to get isn't MAD but rather SIAD - Self-Inflicted Assured Destruction.

They will regrettably eventually cross a line that no one will tolerate.

Then they will come to know first-hand the meaning of nuclear winter. Preferably we'll just use neutron bombs so as not to have the fallout.

The survivors can then pick up the rocks and start flinging them at each other, as they have done since time began.

~~We've~~ You've got a handful of neutrons??!!

Why wait? The Mid East could use an enema. ;)

Staggerwing · February 16, 2012, 01:37:10 PM

Quote from: LongBlade on February 16, 2012, 01:15:32 PM
Preferably we'll just use neutron bombs so as not to have the fallout.

Do we actually have any Neutron bombs in our bag o' tricks to spank any chuckleheads with?

LongBlade · February 16, 2012, 01:37:34 PM

Quote from: Centurion40 on February 16, 2012, 01:22:08 PM
Quote from: LongBlade on February 16, 2012, 01:15:32 PM
What the radicals are eventually going to get isn't MAD but rather SIAD - Self-Inflicted Assured Destruction.

They will regrettably eventually cross a line that no one will tolerate.

Then they will come to know first-hand the meaning of nuclear winter. Preferably we'll just use neutron bombs so as not to have the fallout.

The survivors can then pick up the rocks and start flinging them at each other, as they have done since time began.

~~We've~~ You've got a handful of neutrons??!!

Why wait? The Mid East could use an enema. ;)

I don't know if we do or not, but in the Way Back When machine in my brain I seem to remember a discussion in the news about them. If we made them 20 years ago, we should be able to make them again.