Generational Dynamics World View

[Kinser79]

(08-20-2017, 05:46 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: I'm not just trusting the CIA; I'm also checking against my nuclear engineering knowledge.  For example, I figured out Korea's first tests were plutonium bombs long before the CIA did - or at least before the announced it.

But as you say, it doesn't matter that much how many warheads they have.  The difference between you and me, I think, is that I'm willing to give up Guam to prevent North Korea from having nuclear weapons.

I read you to believe that we can permit nuclear proliferation with a good chance of nuclear weapons never being used.  Is that correct?

I do disagree, for engineering reasons, regarding how difficult plutonium production is.

Plutonium production is difficult if you don't have reactors, and have never built reactors.  Just like manufacturing cars is difficult if you have no car factories and have never built a car factory.  Once there is an intellectual base to work with it is far easier.

As for Guam.  I'm not willing to sacrifice one square centimeter of US territory.  If the DPRK wants nukes, they will get nukes anyway.

As to nuclear proliferation, I have reason to believe that states acquiring nuclear weapons is not that big of a deal, why did the US and USSR not go to war during the Cold War?  The answer is simple, both could annihilate each other in minutes.  The problem is when non-state actors gain access to nuclear weapons, especially if we're speaking of non-state actors attached to medieval superstitions.