There are two key principles of nuclear war. First is that there are no winners. Second is that all nations, “superior” or “inferior,” are essentially equal.

No winners

Nuclear wars and trade wars essentially have no winners. All are losers. This is the ultimate argument against warriors and warmongers who want war to profit from it, such as the weapons makers and their Wall Street funders; or to use it, like Netanyahu is doing, to gain a firmer footing against vastly superior enemies.

As explained in a previous StarGazer article, a nuclear first strike, initiated out of fear the other side may be quicker on the draw, is absurd — a bad move.

If Nation A launches a first strike, Nation B will right away know the enemy has initiated it. Nation B will then launch its own nukes even before Nation A’s missiles arrive. It will be total annihilation of both sides.

The US, Russia, China and other major nuclear-capable nations are all aware of this. This is the ultimate deterrence to nuclear war. Everyone is afraid to start one because of this factor. But there are exceptions.

If a nation like Israel is overwhelmed by many enemies and is totally desperate, it may resort to suicidal measures, meaning, taking the last resort of initiating a nuclear war in the name of survival. In truth, in despair, Netanyahu may start a “secret” nuke war without first informing the US, which might intervene and stop him.

All nations, big or small,

are equal

A small nation with a few nuclear missiles is theoretically equal to a big nation with lots of nukes, especially if the smaller nation initiates the nuclear war. A small nation can theoretically decimate a bigger nation. The casualties will be dictated not only by megatonnage, but by the geographic factor, the ground zero location targeting of population areas and missile bases, and by the time factor, namely, how long it would take to hit a target from launch to explosion.

Of course, smaller nations may have less long range capability, a key factor to consider.

Defense missiles are also a key factor, how effective they are. There are now missiles that can take out underground bunkers up to a certain depth. Can US missiles take out Iran’s underground fortresses of missiles and launch pads? We may never know until it happens or does not happen.

All or nothing

A nuclear war can happen quickly or slowly. Case 1 is an all-out nuclear war from the outset. If the contenders are at each other’s throats, it may happen quickly while we are all asleep, with no time to prepare.

Case 2 is when it starts as an exchange of small nukes and gradually builds to an all-out war. But the escalation can be quick. Once you start with small nukes, you may not be far from big nukes. At least, in Case 2, there may be time to prepare to go into survival mode.

Behind the scenes are the mindsets of the leaders and generals of the nations. Fear is a key factor, and can cause sudden trigger-happy shoot-from-the-hip situations, even at the low level of technicians who handle the launch. There have been near nuclear confrontations in the past based on accidental or misinformed technical teams.

A total nuclear war is the ultimate cleansing of the planet Earth. The movies that we see about post-nuclear situations may be true in many ways.

Preparations

Some people, especially in the rich West, have been preparing for a nuclear war, building secret underground bunkers beneath their homes equipped with food, medicine, water, batteries and fuel that could last for as long as three years. They are equipped with guns for defense.

You must think they are crazy but they think we are the ones who are crazy.