Re: [Marxism] nternational Anti-Imperialist and People's Solidarity Coordinating Committee (IAPSCC) on North Korean Nuclear Test

[Michael Smith <mjs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 30 May 2009 02:46:34 +0000 (GMT)
Sukla Sen <suklasenp@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> But to brand nuclear weapon - Âa weapon of deliberate mass murder on a
> mind-boggling scale - as a weapon of "defence" is nothing short of
> criminal lunacy.

Well, call me a criminal lunatic, then. 

There are two things nukes are good for: 

1) Terrorizing, or attempting to terrorize, 
other states who don't have them. This is the 
situation of Israel now, and was the situation 
of the US before the USSR got the bomb. 

2) Neutralizing the terror threat posed by states 
in category 1) above. 

Let's say Lilliput gets a nuke, and can threaten 
Blefuscu. So then Blefuscu gets a nuke. Blefuscu 
can't threaten Lilliput -- because Lilliput can 
retaliate. But Lilliput can no longer threaten 
Blefuscu either, for the same reason. So Blefuscu 
has responded appropriately and defensively to
Lilliput's threat and is better off as a result. 

All this stuff was game-theorized to a fare-thee-well 
back in the 60s. 

-- 

Michael Smith
mjs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu