|
Nuclear Weapon technology is a bright line divider among nations. The general wisdom has been that once you possess Nukes you become (ultimately) untouchable regarding war. Now, diplomacy and threats still occur, but France and Germany won't ever go to war again - for the simple reason that they possess the capability to annihalate each other and huge chunks of the world around them.
But, lately there's this new class of nuclear powers - those who just have 2 or 3 bombs and no real systems to get them to the target. Pakistan, India, North Korea - you get the picture. BTW, I humbly note that in 1997 I predicted India & Pakistan would announce nuclear tech within 5 years, and that the rest of the nations throughout that region would feel the pressure to step up and say they had or were developing nukes.
But, these "upstart" nuclear powers are not the same as the Big Boys. As we will see over the next few years, nuclear technology no longer puts you in that class of nations that can't be f***ed with. You have to have the bomb plus all associated systems to use it on a widescale basis. A single warhead missile sitting in N.K. with the capability of just barely reaching the other side of Japan is quite different than an ICBM sitting in an underground siloh in Oklahoma that can deliver 50 individually-targeted warheads simultaneously anywhere on the planet.
I think over the next quarter century we just might see nuclear weapons used in conventional warfare. Mini-nukes, IMO, will be the beginning of the real problems with nuclear warfare.
PS - Your statement that this technology has never been used is slightly incorrect, as citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can well testify.
__________________
 
|