From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Aug 18 2002 - 19:28:52 MDT
Mitch writes
> It's better to look into the abyss now, in these posts,
> than look into the real abyss, after a major American
> city falls like the Twin Trade Towers did. Then, after
> the first few days of shock by the American people will
> come a demand for vengeance, that will make me seem the
> voice of pacifism.
It's certainly better to think and talk about "the
unthinkable" than to experience it, for sure. One
reason I'm alive is that MAD worked. When the U.S.
had 20 times the destructive power necessary to
obliterate the other, the Soviets would build 100
times. Then the U.S. would build a thousand times,
and so on. Condemned by many who didn't have a very
good intuitive feel for game theory (IMO), however,
this worked.
You're probably right to anticipate the demands for
vengeance in the worst case outcome of our present
situation.
As Philip Chaston put it,
> If Manhattan was destroyed in a nuclear explosion, there
> would probably be a popular acceptance and expectation of
> the destruction of at least one civilian target on the part
> of those held responsible, even if the government was not
> complicit in the action.
However, remember Robert Bradbury's "Inverse Neutron Weapon"
proposal: the American government would be well advised, if
it chooses to retaliate against a city, to warn the inhabitants
first, enabling a great lessening of the damage to human beings.
But if no country could be found to be complicit in the
action, as you hypothesize here, the government would either
have to manufacture the evidence---and risk extremely damaging
disclosure of that fact later---or find some other means. I
think that it was also Robert who laid out a plan to simply
invade those countries *suspected* of having links to the
incident. Perhaps this would appease the electorate's thirst
for vengeance. Bush, besides saying "I told you so", would
perhaps immediately order an invasion of Iraq, and maybe some
other countries.
Lee
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