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From: faustus@ucbvax.ARPA (Wayne Christopher)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: 30 to 10 and counting
Message-ID: <1772@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 1-Sep-84 12:30:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.1772
Posted: Sat Sep  1 12:30:05 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Sep-84 12:03:49 EDT
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 19

It's not the speed at which communication can occur that
prevents accidental wars from starting. If there were a delay of
say 2 minutes between firing and impact, you could be sure that
our forces would be at a much higher level of alert than they
are now -- more bombers in the air at all times, very fast
missle firing systems, etc.  Also, the people in charge would
have to maintain a level of alertness far beyond what they have
to now -- how would you like to have your finger on the button,
knowing that you may have exactly one minute to decide whether
to nuke the USSR or not. Having a dozen Russian diplomats trying
to convince you that in fact the missles are really a flock of
geese or something doesn't help -- if the USSR launches a
preemptive strike, they're sure not going to tell their men in
Washington about it. It is a very dangerous situation, if only
because of the likelyhood of accidents, and there is nothing
besides trying to change the forces involved that is going to
change it.

	Wayne