08-14-2021, 10:13 AM
(08-12-2021, 10:09 AM)David Horn Wrote:(08-12-2021, 09:25 AM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: The Chinese use nukes to depopulate the USA? So...the Chinese would view a radioactive waste land as ripe for colonization?
On the other hand, I can easily imagine nukes being part of scenario in which the mainland either invades Taiwan, or tries to bring Taiwan to its knees with a blockade. If not actually detonated, then used to bully. One tactic might be to threaten Japan or South Korea with nukes to dissuade the USA from intervening
For some period in the past, there were neutron weapons (though no evidence that any still exist in any weapons arsenal). If produced and used, they cause virtually no blast-effect damage, the neutrons kill all life, and the infrastructure is left intact for future use. Jimmy Carter considered building pure-fusion versions, but changed his mind.
The situation is not victory if one has won nothing. I can define three sorts of victories:
1. Whole or partial extermination of an enemy populace while seizing what had been its assets, such as real estate and movable wealth. Example (and arguably the most infamous): the Holocaust.
2. Complete subjection of an enemy populace as slaves or serfs while taking over its real and portable assets, perhaps after destroying any potential leaders. Example: Nazi treatment of the Poles and Slavic peoples of the western Soviet Union.
3. Annihilation of the culture of a subjected people through compulsory or near-compulsory assimilation, although the subject people become a lesser caste aside from a few selected collaborators. Example: Spanish treatment of the First Peoples of the conquered Aztec and Inca empires.
4. Destruction of the will of an enemy nation to wage further resistance by making clear that property will not be seized, and people will not be mistreated. US and British treatment of Germans, Italians, and Japanese after WWII. Guilty people may be prosecuted and executed, but that is as far as it goes.
There is no victory if there are no people to subject or assets suitable for seizing. Deciding not to subject or expropriate is itself a choice for winning the peace. Who wants Chernobyl?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
