WTF #67

[loosechanj]

Well, crap. I got my dragon warrior 7 today, but you need a damn PS1 memory card to save. Boy do I feel stupid. Some gamer I am.

While I was over at my mom's picking it up, I asked my stepdad about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, since he used to work for the air farce's spook outfit. Get this: they've got about 30-50 actual bombs, which are all in the kiloton range. So there's maybe a megaton of boom there, total. And they're not even assembled. Various bomb bits are scattered in different parts of the country. They're a "nuclear" nation the same way a few kids throwing a pigskin is a football team. Why do we treat them like they're potential superbowl champs? WTF? We should've pounded'em into the bronze age on our way into Afghanistan.

Comments

[thewrongcrowd.livejournal.com]

That's some of the better news I've heard today. About Pakistan, not your PS1 card woes. :)

I suspect we accord more gravitas to their nuclear capability to keep them and India balanced, since that's who Pakistan is most likely to light up. They all need to have to stand in the time-out corner like a bunch of 8-yr-olds.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

He also said India's got roughly the same sort of arsenal. It boggles my mind that we put on the kid gloves simply because of a yes bit on "nuclear" with no regard for the actual magnitude or nature of the capability.

[mitejen.livejournal.com]

We aren't that concerned with Pakistan all by itself. It would be less Pakistan's single power then the chain reaction it'd set off if they bombed India, India bombed back, Pakistan's allies got involved, India's allies got involved, et cetera. Some of the most densely-populated cities in the world are in India, so the human cost would also be extremely high.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

The thing is though, they're not even assembled. Parts are in one part of the country, other parts are somewhere else. To get an actual weapon would takes days, if not weeks. I doubt they could be used in a surprise attack. By the time they were ready there'd already be a war.

[mitejen.livejournal.com]

Well yes, they aren't assembled. But India might not know that. Or at least it's a lie agreed upon by both sides that they would nuke each other into continental parking lots if they could, and had their apparatuses prepared.

Perhaps they're afraid of escalation; assembling their nukes would encourage India to assemble theirs and be on alert.

Without even getting into the problems with fallout. I think the big reason we handle them with kid gloves is that other countries are watching what we do with them. Think of parents, watching a very large dog playing with a small child. The parents are the rest of the world, the dog is us, the child any smaller nation with nuclear capabilities.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Hey, if *I* know it, it's a safe bet India does. :-P My point is that for all practical purposes those weapons are pure propaganda.

[mitejen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but politics is a complex game more than anything else. And propaganda/international relations is a big part of that game.

It's definitely nice to know their shit isn't as together as CNN wants you to believe. But then I only read CNN these days for the weird human interest stories anyway.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

But then I only read CNN these days for the weird human interest stories anyway.

They're now firmly in the comedy option category, along with FOX.