NUCLEAR WAR WILL DESTROY ALL LIFE. War, Nuclear War, and Nuclear Deterrence Some Conceptual and Moral Issues. Richard Wasserstrom. Ethics, Vol. 95, No. 3, Special Issue Symposium on Ethics and Nuclear Deterrence (Apr, 1985), pp. 424-444. Published by The University of Chicago Press. Stable URL http://www.jstor.org/stable/2381030 The United States possesses nine thousand nuclear warheads, which, were they all to be launched and detonated, would probably yield about 3,500 megatons of short- term, immediate destructive force-a force equivalent to that of the destructive power of three hundred thousand bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima. Were either country to launch and detonate some substantial number of its nuclear warheads, most, if not all, of the persons living in the country so bombarded would be killed by the initial blasts, the ensuing massive firestorms, and the lethal radiation generated And it is possible, perhaps even probable, that, were either or both to do so, all forms of life existing on earth would be destroyed by the longer-term effects and consequences of the force, fire, and radiation unleashed.
10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 94 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com
