I find it odd that no one has mentioned the bigger picture of what this nuclear exchange unleashed. Namely, the adverse effects of nuclear proliferation.

I don't even want to debate the justification of the use of these bombs on a civilian population. There isn't one. I agree that one main motivating factor was to engender a large-scale nuclear pissing contest between world powers. The United States, in its glorious, horrific and very short life on Earth has been an arrogant bully from the get-go, forsaking its abilities and resources that might have made them a model nation for the dubious satisfaction gained from upholding a culture and government ruled by greed, competition and tyranny. Fortunately they have plenty of company in this.

Countries like Russia, the United States, France, England, etc. still sit on their tidy piles of bombs (thanks to Presidents Carter and Clinton for at least making an attempt to decommission many of them).

This idea of tacit mutually-assured destruction may seem passe now, but the fact remains there is still enough firepower controlled by the world's most militarily-sophisticated nations to blow the planet to smithereens several dozen times over. The only comfort anyone has derived from this (apart from those who inexplicably think it is a good thing to have all these deathboms lying around) is the idea that none of these nations would use such weapons without careful deliberation. This is not to forget the possibility that security breaches or terroristic acts might penetrate the silos, or that some stroke of geological or meteorological bad luck might finish things off for us.

Rogue nations with highly volatile and unstable political infrastructures (like Libya, or Jordan for example) have only to steal enough nuclear material (easy enough to do if you follow the news and have read of the unsettling amounts of plutonium and uranium that go missing each year) to construct a bomb and explode it pretty much anywhere. Can you all imagine the fallout (no pun intended) from such an event?

I have not even begun to mention the ways in which the production and testing of nuclear weapons and the generation of nuclear power have compromised public health and safety over the years.

The most obvious demonstration of naivete in my humble opinion is a failure to look at all sides of the issue. Our most basic needs for human survival: clean water, pure air, untainted food, and a thriving, diverse ecosystem, have been annihilated in the race to have the most nuclear bombs. Even if we one day decide to get rid of them all (as we might if there are any survivors after the next nuclear exchange), the resultant toxic waste will be a threat to life on Earth for millions of years.

Humanity will not rise like a Phoenix from these ashes. It will most likely barely stir as the poison wind passes over the rubble of the Earth. Circle of life.

peg