{"id":4636,"date":"2016-06-01T13:06:14","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4636"},"modified":"2016-06-01T13:11:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T19:11:50","slug":"m-a-d-2016-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/m-a-d-2016-edition.html","title":{"rendered":"M.A.D., 2016 edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOperation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001.jpg;
https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOperation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001.jpg; By Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration \/ Nevada Site Office [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>You remember MAD, right? \u00a0(I put the periods in the title so that it\u2019s clearer that it\u2019s not that I\u2019m mad about something.) \u00a0The concept that, because each of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. maintained a nuclear triad with second-strike capability, neither would launch a first-strike nuclear attack because of the certainty that the other would retailate. \u00a0Mutual Assured Destruction \u2014 and it seemed to have worked pretty successfully.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking of this because Obama\u2019s speech at Hiroshima (see my prior post<\/a>) has inspired, not just the usual \u201cwe had to do it\u201d essays but a contrarian viewpoint, coming across my facebook news feed, making the claim that, regardless of how much longer the war would have lasted, it was still not justified to have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because it is immoral to target civilians, regardless of whether your opponent has done so first. \u00a0Hence, the atom bomb was immoral. \u00a0The firebombing of Tokyo or Dresden was wrong. \u00a0The conventional bombing of cities across Germany and Japan was immoral \u2014 only conventional warfare, in which your army directly confronts the enemy\u2019s army, as well as, perhaps, bombing runs limited to weapons factories, are acceptable, even if you\u2019re the \u201cgood guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, this almost reads as if I\u2019m building a straw man here. \u00a0But here\u2019s some reading from a fellow Patheos blogger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there are two issues that I\u2019d like to explore.<\/p>\n

First: \u00a0why, exactly, is it that we make the differentiation between civilians and military? \u00a0Consider the Nazis: \u00a0their civilians were as brainwashed to support Hitler\u2019s ideology as their soldiers. \u00a0And, on the other hand, their soldiers were typically conscripts, not volunteers.<\/p>\n

Second, the entire concept of MAD relies on the retaliatory targeting of civilians. \u00a0Had the unthinkable happened, there would have been no national debate, of course \u2014 a second-strike capability, if the first-strike was as large as was assumed to be, required immediate action. \u00a0But in the year 2016, we\u2019re more concerned about an attack from a rogue actor. \u00a0If the North Koreans launched an attack on Seoul, would we obliterate Pyongyang? \u00a0If Iran\u00a0attacked Tel Aviv, would we wipe Tehran off the map? \u00a0(Well, OK, in that case, the Israelis might not even need our help.) \u00a0And if ISIS got their hands on a nuclear bomb, what would our retaliatory target be?<\/p>\n

For your consideration.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: a 1953 nuclear bomb test. \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AOperation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001.jpg; By Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration \/ Nevada Site Office [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You remember MAD, right? \u00a0(I put the periods in the title so that it\u2019s clearer that it\u2019s not that I\u2019m mad about something.) \u00a0The concept that, because each of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. maintained a nuclear triad with second-strike capability, neither would launch a first-strike nuclear attack because of the certainty that the other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[399,398],"class_list":["post-4636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mad","tag-nuclear-arms"],"yoast_head":"\nM.A.D., 2016 edition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You remember MAD, right? \u00a0(I put the periods in the title so that it's clearer that it's not that I'm mad about something.) \u00a0The concept that, because\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/m-a-d-2016-edition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"M.A.D., 2016 edition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You remember MAD, right? 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