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What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

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Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#2
I remember when WWIII meant we all lose, in (depending upon where the boomers may be) half an hour or less.

Have there been significant advances in mineshaft technology since then?

see also https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-c...

or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#3

I remember when WWIII meant we all lose, in (depending upon where the boomers may be) half an hour or less. Have there been significant advances in mineshaft technology since then? see also https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-c... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

No, but MAD has so far worked to prevent use of nuclear weapons even in self-defense. MAD hasn't done anything with respect to non-nuclear[1] war using ever more capable non-nuclear weapons.

The large issue now, as it was a big issue then, is still whether or not the powers will get involved, and how if they do.

[1] - It's hardly conventional anymore, just non-nuclear-warhead.

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#4
This is shifting of the Overton Window in plain sight. Lubing the public to accept the blood thirsty policies that are coming.

The drums of war are slowly sounding, and nobody will benefit from this.

What's worse, we can only stand in the corner as spectators, unable to counter this immeasurable inertia of our own animalistic nature.

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#5

I remember when WWIII meant we all lose, in (depending upon where the boomers may be) half an hour or less. Have there been significant advances in mineshaft technology since then? see also https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-c... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

No, but MAD has so far worked to prevent use of nuclear weapons even in self-defense. MAD hasn't done anything with respect to non-nuclear[1] war using ever more capable non-nuclear weapons. The large issue now, as it was a big issue then, is still whether or not the powers will get involved, and how if they do. [1] - It's hardly conventional anymore, just non-nuclear-warhead.

[deleted]

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#6
If Ukraine falls, I think the West will undergo a major "moral hangover". The West has this strong "freedom ideology" which is pretty powerful both inwards and outwards, it has used it in Ukraine, giving it full blessing in terms of moral support. The West has pretty unilaterally proclaimed Ukraine to be the morally right side fighting for its freedom and that the West stands besides it in its rightful cause.

But now, if Ukraine is abandoned, it's not because too many American lives were dying or anything like that, it will be because it costs some money (even if it's not a huge sum in the larger scheme of things). The freedom narrative are just words, now exposed to be empty of substance. This will have ripple effects on the image of the West both inside and outside.

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#7

I remember when WWIII meant we all lose, in (depending upon where the boomers may be) half an hour or less. Have there been significant advances in mineshaft technology since then? see also https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-c... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

The scenario imagined in the article is more the less the “The Button” sequence from Yes Minister; when _do_ you initiate a full-blown nuclear war? You probably don’t.

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#8

If Ukraine falls, I think the West will undergo a major "moral hangover". The West has this strong "freedom ideology" which is pretty powerful both inwards and outwards, it has used it in Ukraine, giving it full blessing in terms of moral support. The West has pretty unilaterally proclaimed Ukraine to be the morally right side fighting for its freedom and that the West stands besides it in its rightful cause. But now…

[deleted]

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#9
post #7

I remember when WWIII meant we all lose, in (depending upon where the boomers may be) half an hour or less. Have there been significant advances in mineshaft technology since then? see also https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/nuclear-war-c... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_independently_targeta...

The scenario imagined in the article is more the less the “The Button” sequence from Yes Minister; when _do_ you initiate a full-blown nuclear war? You probably don’t.

The most frequent ending in the card game I mentioned is that as soon as it becomes apparent that one player will lose, they take everyone else with them.

(sure, it may be just a game, but I claim there is at least one nuclear power that (a) cannot credibly claim a "no first use" policy, and (b) has been known to have leaders who fail to accept defeat graciously)

It is of course the duty of psychological warfare operatives to provide a non-button path for losing entities (does "cooling the mark out"* assume there are no psyop-immune "Doomsday Machines" in the launch path?); how confident are we they can do so effectively?

* https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00332747.1952.11...

Re: What Would America Look Like If It Lost Wwiii?

#10

If Ukraine falls, I think the West will undergo a major "moral hangover". The West has this strong "freedom ideology" which is pretty powerful both inwards and outwards, it has used it in Ukraine, giving it full blessing in terms of moral support. The West has pretty unilaterally proclaimed Ukraine to be the morally right side fighting for its freedom and that the West stands besides it in its rightful cause. But now…

> The West has pretty unilaterally proclaimed Ukraine to be the morally right side fighting for its freedom and that the West stands besides it in its rightful cause.

I think that’s essentially true in Europe (modulo Hungary, maybe), but it’s somewhat more ambivalent in the US; the presumptive Republican candidate for president is all but aligning with Russia on this one.

To some extent this is probably to be expected; Putin has designs on EU states, particularly Poland, as a next step (you could question how realistic a Russian attack on Poland actually would be, but that does seem to be Putin’s thinking), whereas for the US, the consequences of Ukrainian defeat, while fairly dire, would be more nebulous.

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