North Korea detonates Nuke

Or more likely a fair few Chinese-imported mushroom clouds to prettify their cities.

 

Minor point. Russia lost it's superpower status with the breakup of the USSR according to most geopolitical/military analysts.

 

True. Though it could probably still kick North Korea around if they started anything.

 

kaiser ,i never said you were a communist or even anti american...you certainly have the right to be both of these things btw...i was and still am puzzled by your assertion that mao,s not really such a bad fellow because some of the millians he killed were acually killed by his atate mandated rice crop falure and attendent famine...also your assertion that taiwan belongs to communist china and thats that ....ergo, they should lay down their arms and welcome the p.l.a. ashore ...you are welcome to hold these opinions , i just think they are indefensible..

 

Such as who? Names would be helpful, nuclear arsenal statistics and an article in this week's TIME magazine seems to think otherwise; the complete opposite in fact...

The fact is Russia and America remain the only nuclear superpowers in the world... Although other countries posess nuclear capabilities they are far diminished in comparison to the thousands of warheads in America's and Russia's arsenal, even when accounting for those decomissioned since the early 1990's... China, who are third place in Nuclear development maintain only 410 warheads, most of whose maitenance is questionable... Barely a shadow of the 7,200 nuclear warheads Russia has elected to maintain (a further 8,800 have been decomissioned after 1991) or of the 10,315 that U.S.A posesses. Essentially these are the only two countries with the ability to destroy one (or more) countries off the face of the earth... Messing with either would be suicidal yet that is what Nth Korea propses to do. All other nuclear programmes are insufficient in coomparison to the cold war rivals, and the assertion that Russia is no longer a superpower due to her ever-persistent economic troubles is ludicrous in my mind. Someone clearly forgot to count their nukes oh, and their oil reserves

The contention of the article I am referring to is that there are three classes of nuclear powers in the modern world... First are Russia and America, the two most powerful nuclear nations. They are also the most responsible nations in handling this power; both have demonstrated incredible reluctance to use them since Cuba and Chornobyl crisies. nuclear aggression from America or Russia is very unlikely... Secondly, it goes on to class other recognised nuclear powers; UK, France, China, India and Pakistan to have quite responsible nuclear programs (a tad questionablel when it comes to testing practises), but to nevertheless classify them as responsible nations... The third class of nuclear nations are those such as Iran and Nth Korea... 'Wildcards' if you will... depsite having the least nuclear technological advancements they have the suspected lack of responsibility when it comes to nuclear policy and as such are considered to pose the biggest threat, should they attain such weapons. It is expected that should Nth Korea (and Iran) actually gain nuclear capabilities, many more countries will follow suit seeking to arm themselves against possible attackers... The article takes care to identify Turkey and Israel as two of the most likely of these countries.

The real threat of North Korea is that it may prompt a worldwide nuclear buildup among any nation who can afford to... nuclear power would no longer be in the hands of the more 'responsible' nations... And in an atmosphere of paranoia that would be very dangerous

 

yes smeg ..we are all very lucky we got through the cold war without the us and russia tradeing salvos...even by accident. the leader of iran has said that he intends to melt the sidewalks in televiv...the leader of nk is a complete hairpin ...for the un to allow either of these countries to build a working weapon is downright lunacy...one can only hope the un is willing to do what has to be done to snuff out these projects

 

My assertion that Taiwan belongs to China isn't indefensible.Like i said,have u ever bothered reading the local Taiwan news for that matter?I think you haven't.Historical records proves that Taiwan is Chinese land.Taiwan was afterall the last stronghold of a defeated political and military group.Supposed the confederates hole themselves up on Rhode Island,would not the Union force it back by arms or political means?Can you answer this question majorwoody?

Your thinking is indefensible now because with regards to this matter,you have failed to apply facts and logic.

 

To play devil's advocate...

Taiwan is an enclave that the People's Republic of China have failed to defeat. In effect, the civil war is still on, it's just a Cold War.

If the People's Republic of China ever formally recognise Taiwan's existance, then the war is over and they're a seperate nation.


The complication sets in because Taiwan has a powerful ally who always stops them from being attacked - the USA. But hey, it's war, and that's what allies are for.

 

Though this comes from Wikipedia and cannot be considered authoritative taken alone I find that it represents the case exactly as I have read in many other sources over the years. If you wish you can do more research on your own on the subject. The status of superpower is not dependent entirely upon counts of nuclear warheads.

 

And to put a stop to what i consider very very ridiulous and nonsensical implications that i may be communist and anti american.For the last time,i am not.Being Chinese doesn't mean i am communist just like being white doesn't make every white a member of the KKK.(i hope you find this simple enough)

And i don't admire Mao.My defense of Mao is purely out of my sense and perspective of things.Again,just as lawyers who defends murderers in a trial doesn't make them an admirer of the act or urder.(Very simple point i must say)

 

I'm gonna be a pain now ( ) - what was the source of your quote?

 

Read my whole comment Ricky, I stated Wikipedia was the source and mentioned that while Wikipedia can't be considered authoritative the comments there reflected accurately what I have seen in many other sources. I'm happy to leave it at that. If anyone else isn't I'd recommend further research. It's an opinion not a fact so there is no way to really provide an authoritative source.

 

The real threat of North Korea is that it may prompt a worldwide nuclear buildup among any nation who can afford to... nuclear power would no longer be in the hands of the more 'responsible' nations... And in an atmosphere of paranoia that would be very dangerous


I agree with this, it is most likely that Japan, South-Korea and perhaps Taiwan will now try to build up their own nuclear force wich ofcourse gives China and North-Korea the signal to expand the nuclear force.

Basicly it will be the same as the former Soviet-Union and the usa, build up will continue till mutual capability of destroing the other.

I think that there is a difference in the position the nuclear weapons in the countries strategy, from defence to offense. I doubt that North-Korea is capable to use it nuclear weaponry as offensive. Both numbers and carrying capability is not in favour for the North-Koreans.

Question is wich party will use it nukes as offensive and wich only as deterrence. Small numbers is automaticly deterrence..

Kind regards,

 

did you knwo WW3 came within the Russian leader pushing a button once? somebody for get to tell them about a Turkish missile test for sceitific research and Russian operators mistook it for a Trident (or was it Polaris at the time?) missile- American.

At any point the Cold War could have erupted into a Nuclear War....both neither side started because they both knew it would only be about half an hour before they were both giant nuclear wastelands. (With Canada smack dab in the fricking middle :angry: )

 

Who said it came from wikipedia? I said it came from TIME magazine, October 23 Issue 2006, Article by Bill Powell

Also I am aware of factors like ABM systems and delivery capabilities (of which North Korea possesses none) My point was merely that Russia remains the Second most nuclear capable country by a very, very wide margin... The numbers of delieverable warheads are but one way of demonstrating that...

 

My bad, I thought the chunk of text you wrote was a response to the quote above it. I think that Smeghead has made the same mistake.

Smeg - we have already discussed somewhere wether any of the Russian nuke-delivery platforms still actually work...

 

And nuclear weapons capabilities is only one aspect of what superpower status is about, which is what my point concerns. I didn't dispute any of the nuke stats in the article posted nor say it was from Wikipedia. Perhaps you should reread my post carefully.

 

Acctualy i belive it was Norwegan scientific rocket. How about test firing of balistic missile by US during the height of Cuban missile crisis?

 

a test fire during the cmc,tiso?...

 

Yes. And scramble of a squadron F-102 with Nuclear tipped rockets becouse of intruder alert ( luckily it was stopped after it was established that it was a bear that scrambled owere the fence).