What do you think would happen, politically, if two smaller nations ended up using a nuclear weapon against the other and the war did not spread to neighboring nations? I was reading the latest article in Science News about how much more of a threat nuclear weapons are today with the continuous addition of nations to the nuclear club.
One nation would win the war, the other nation would lose the war. And as to other nations ...they'd probably be slightly upset, but would be afraid to say or do much of anything for fear of pissing them off. The UN would issue one of it's usual "Gee, you're not very nice" decries, but would also do nothing. I wonder ...do you suppose people were asking similar questions once the world discovered the use of gunpowder for war? Baron Max
The political ramifications would have alot to do with the physical effects of the bombings, and which countries were the ones involved. There would be refugees fleeing both nations to surrounding countries, who may or may not let them in. Both nations would be effectively gone politically, the infrastructure of government being destroyed.
Not necesserily... Let's say India nukes Pakistan and Pakistan retaliates, then everything stays the same. Or they nuke each other simultaniously, and still everything stays the same, except the population got reduced by a few millions... Political correctness is a rather new notion. Probably not older then 60 years....
Gunpowder in cannons and such was a damned scary thing in those days. Prior to it, they could only use spears and swords and arrows. How would you feel? Baron Max
I wasn't talking about political correctness, just the thinking about new weapons of war that could kill many from a long distance. No one had ever known anything like that until the use of gunpowder and cannons. In their time, they would probably have asked something like, "What do you think would happen, politically, if two smaller nations ended up using gunpowder and cannons against the other and the war did not spread to neighboring nations?" See what I mean? Many generations faced similar threats and were just as horrified about it as we are of nukes. Baron Max
Again, this is an issue of PC. A few hundred years back the issue was simple: Am I stronger than my enemy and can I win a war against them? And of story... They dealt with wars and military strikes rather than politics. Not to mention kings and rules never cared what their people thought of their decissions. Something like W. does today...
but gunpowder is the 6th cousin twice removed of nuclear weapons. gunpowder: six year old child with cerebral palsy. nuclear weapons: mike tyson 3 days after contracting rabies.