I don't pretend to have the answers Hugh.
FWIW, I am vehemently "Anti-Nuke."
What? A "Hawk" like me being anti-nuke? It can't BE!
It's true though.
I spent ten years in uniform, both as a Soldier and a Marine, and then as now, I was a thinking man.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself "What is a Nuclear weapon?"
A Nuclear weapon is a weapon designed and intended to be used against non-combatants. Civilians. Men, women, children, Doctors, Nurses, Burger Flippers, Tire Changers, Car Washers, Maids, Mothers, etc.
As a military man, (I no longer wear the uniform but I will always be a military man and a Marine.) I have no problem with the idea of killing soldiers of any opposing force. None what-so-ever. But no power on earth could ever persuade me to wage war on civilians and this is the only possible use of any "strategic" nuclear arsenal.
These are the things I was taught as a Marine.
(Interestingly, I was not taught these things as a Soldier.)
The professional warrior does no more damage than that required to complete the mission.
The professional warrior does not target non-combatants.
The professional warrior will not target hospitals, churches, or schools.
Doing these things constitutes commission of War Crimes and the Marine Corps will always seek out and vigourously punish war criminals regardless of what uniform they wear.
I loathe all that a nuclear missle represents. I despise all that it stands for, and everything it symbolizes whether people understand that symbolism or not.
Having said all of that however;
I understand that as long as anyone has them, we must have them also.
I understand that we must squander billions of dollars in an arms race that no one in their right mind would ever want to win.
I understand that if one side ever acheives a clear "superiority" in that arms race, that they will probably blow the ever loving Hell out of whoever's on the other side of the pond.
US?
Would WE do that?
To date, the United States in the only nation on Earth that has ever deployed nuclear weapons against an enemy in war.
We did it twice.
Many argue that we did the right thing by dropping the bomb. That countless thousands, possibly millions of lives were saved.
Bullshyte.
The question is, "who" died so that "who else" could live?
Easy.
Civilians died so that soldiers wouldn't have to.
That's called a War Crime.
Would we have had to "take Japan in house to house fighting" as has often been said in an effort to "explain away" our use of nuclear weapons?
I don't see why. Japan was out of money, out of friends, and out of fuel. If we'd blockaded their major ports, they'd have had no choice but to surrender.
But we wanted something flashy.
Boom.
Now?
Well now the Genie is out of the bottle and will never be put back.
I once heard someone say that living during the Cold War was like walking around drenched in gasoline and everyone in the world had a match.
Nothing's changed.
So build missles, build anti missle missles, build anti anti missle missles, and then build more missles. Toss in a few suitcase sized "Christmas Crackers" for the kiddies and don't sweat the small stuff, it's just a matter of time til someone screws up and kills all of us.
Fock nuclear weapons.
