The threat of nuclear annihilation demands our immediate attention
Take what consolation you can from this fact: There will not be a Third World War. Certainly not a protracted one, anyway. The last moment a nuclear conflict could be 'won' was in 1959, before ballistic missiles could freight a payload of gamma rays, black rain and pearlescent sunrise over an enemy city (over every city). Any openly hostile showdown between superpowers since then would see rockets flung instantly and in the thousands. During the Cold War, U.S. doctrine didn't bother ordering forward the armored divisions. It unfurled the black umbrella of Bomb Power instead. So far as we know, this doctrine remains. We have, in a sense, already had our nuclear war — the only one allowed to us. It ended in 1945. The weapon built to finish that war is a monstrous guarantor against the possibility of the next. Two options remain: deterrence or annihilation. How long do we have before the former gives way to the latter?
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