No place to hide

Ted Folkert

May 22, 2015

All of the sabre-rattling lately from some of the disgruntled leaders around the world brings to mind the question of the likelihood of us blowing each other out of existence. North Korea, with their “loose-cannon” of a leader, threatens to attack everyone in sight. Of course, we see that as like the smallest kid in the class taunting the big bully, who isn’t going to ruin his reputation on some little twerp. And, Vladimir Putin keeps reminding his adversaries that Russia is a nuclear country. And are they ever. They have more nuclear warheads than any other country.

The latest count seems to be as follows: Russia – 8,500, U.S. – 7,500, France – 300, China – 250, UK – 225, Israel – 200. Other countries for which we have no count are: North Korea, Pakistan, India, and Germany. Iran is continuously accused of trying to enrich uranium in order to make nuclear warheads but is believed to not have them as yet.

So with 17,000 counted and another unknown of a few thousand, we could probably safely estimate a total in excess of 20,000. The two bombs we dropped on Japan caused more than 100,000 deaths. It is believed that the warheads now available are more powerful than the earlier creations. So, if they are twice as powerful and we now have 20,000, which could each cause 100,000 deaths, we could possibly eliminate 2 billion people once a nuclear war got underway. That should pretty much take care of all of the major cities around the globe. Of course, this doesn’t take into consideration the other damage done in the process, which would be devastating throughout the world in terms of food supply and transportation.

Considering all of the conflicts that are underway presently and the unlikelihood of any resolution in the near future, what is the likelihood of a nuclear warhead becoming involved. Once that happens, all hell could break loose. So, who goes first, who responds, who calls for a truce? We don’t know. The way ISIS, or ISIL, or whatever, is marauding around the Middle East, how soon will they get their hands on a nuclear weapon? We don’t know, but the danger exists. How long can we keep Israel at bay against Iran? It seems that they would like to invade them at any time. Actually, Israel, on a square footage and population basis, may be the best armed country on the planet. If war breaks out, will a nuclear weapon by involved? We don’t know.

What we do know is that we need to reexamine the need for an effective united police force to adjudicate and resolve conflicts before they become a threat to our very existence. If a nuclear war among the various nuclear countries ever becomes a reality, we will surely have no place to hide and we could ultimately end civilization as we know it and render this planet unable to support human life or any life whatsoever.

Think about it!

We have no place to hide!