From: utzoo!decvax!genrad!linus!allegra!eagle!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!neil
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: Are nuclear weapons *special*? - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hplabs.1413
Posted: Fri May  6 10:27:52 1983
Received: Fri May 13 07:26:17 1983

Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP
Message-ID:<1413@hplabs.UUCP>
Date:Fri, 6-May-83 10:27:52 EDT

#R:houti:-27200:hplabs:15300001:000:811
hplabs!neil    May  6 09:32:00 1983

re:  Just how special are Nukes?

Just to try and change the semantics of the question:  Perhaps
what we should be asking is, "are Nuclear Weapons unique?"

The answer is not really.  An all out war would probably be
an NBC war (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical).  And the biological
weapons scare me more than the nuclear ones.

The US has renounced all use of biological weapons and first
use of chemical weapons.  The USSR has and is using chemical
weapons in Afghanistan, and is doing active research on biological
weapons.  (A few years ago (1979?) there was an Anthrax outbreak
near a biological weapons research center in the USSR;  the mortality
rate was 80%).

So, my conclusion is that Nuclear weapons are not uniquely distructive,
they just are getting worse publicity.

    Neil Katin
    hplabs!neil