Why Does Anyone Need Nuclear Weapons? Question

--Audience Question: Why do we have nuclear weapons? In what scenario, short of absurd devastation, would so-called strategic use of nuclear weapons make sense?

--On the Bonus Show: A supercut of all the female dialogue from the original Star Wars trilogy, e-cig flavors contain chemicals linked to lung disease, the House moves to ban microbeads, more...

24/7 Voicemail Line: (219)-2DAVIDP

Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day, 6-8 stories! Make sure to subscribe!

--Donate via Ethereum: 0xe3E6b538E1CD21D48Ff1Ddf2D744ea8B95Ba1930

--Donate via Litecoin: LhNVT9j5gQj8U1AbwLzwfoc5okDoiFn4Mt

--Donate via Bitcoin: 15evMNUN1g4qdRxywbHFCKNfdCTjxtztfj

--Donate via Ethereum: 0xe3E6b538E1CD21D48Ff1Ddf2D744ea8B95Ba1930

--Donate via Litecoin: LhNVT9j5gQj8U1AbwLzwfoc5okDoiFn4Mt

[SomethingRedundant]

They exist as a deterrent nowadays. They're the reason why we haven't had any more mass infantry conflicts like we saw in both world wars. Simply, no one wants to provoke another nuclear strike, so they push harder and harder for diplomatic resolutions to international conflicts/disputes.

they also exist for defense, obviously. For example, North Korea still exists only because of the threat of a nuclear strike on South Korea, nukes have defended them for ages now

[LabTech]

I hate to use a 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' metaphor here, but the reason we or anyone else has nukes is 'the implication'.  We've only used nukes twice in war, so as far as practical weapons in warfare are concerned they're the most expensive failure in human history... aside from 'the implication'.  The implication being, IF they were ever used, millions - possibly billions - of people would die; and all rational actors being equal, the possibility of the IF is too terrible to risk.  You'd be insane to actually DO IT, but you can threaten or imply whatever you want, and that's what makes them worthwhile to have to various world powers.  North Korea has them so that US forces don't cross the 38th parallel, and the main reason Iran would want them (not that is has them) would be to keep US forces out of Tehran.  The proof is that Bagdad is in ruins while Tehran is... because of the implication.

[HerkRants]

The concept of "mutually assured destruction, " was, I think, based in the idea that no one could use nukes on us because we would immediately retaliate and they would all die as well, so there was no point in trying and really no reason to escalate any conflict anywhere. This did not take into account renegade states that might obtain a nuclear weapon. But, like today's conflicts that require huge amounts of arms sales to fuel them, the nuke industry was probably all about money.

[michaeljaquish]

Perhaps humanity unwittingly developed nuclear bombs specifically for ISIS?

[okaro]

Better to have a nuclear umbrella than Chamberlain's umbrella.

[bigraviolees]

If a president Trump got some bad Canadian bacon he nukes Canada

[JS-wool]

On the point of feeling safe. That feeling is predicated on the fact that you know other powers have nuclear weapons as well. So really the only way one could safely get rid of nukes is if all groups who currently had them agreed to get rid of them as well. And even then that may not be something some countries would be willing trust other's to do.

So in the end. Nukes will be needed for now.

[originate]

Only watched the beginning so far, up to 0:35, and so far, I think you're right. The amount of nuclear firepower that exists is completely absurd for use on this planet, and probably could poison most things on the planet several times over, meaning some countries stockpiles would be suicidal even without mutually assured destruction theory (I don't think the video said all that so far) Although if used wisely in space, maybe they could be part of a plan to deflect an asteroid or something.
No more nukes! Unless they're specifically designed to deal with some problem in space where nukes would be effective.
Otherwise, to people who want nukes for this planet: wtf?
Do you want to poison everything?

[SocialistSkeptic]

We need nukes to fight the Aliens, duh.

[OMG_BeCkY]

Kind of like SUVs...a few people started driving them so suddenly everyone "had to drive one" in order to not be the smaller guy in the event of a crash.

[Horror_Film_Aficionado]

To hopefully save earth from Asteroids and comets

[ZeldagigafanMatthew]

For starters, the total destructive yield of all nukes in existence is less than that of the destructive yield of the asteroid that was responsible for killing the dinosaurs. The main concern of mass detonation of nuclear weapons is a Nuclear Winter. Those that survive the initial blast will find themselves in a place that is pretty inhospitable to life for two reasons 1) The radiation from the resulting fallout, and 2) the Nuclear Winter.

But nukes serve a greater purpose when we don't use them. The only wars that have ever happened since the first nuclear weapon was built are regional conflicts and those where one of the belligerents is a terrorist organization.

[trevortrevortsr]

If Palestine or Syria had nukes do you think they would be pushed about by others ?'

[FilterExel]

I have one: the *threat* of absurd devastation.

[itachiful]

Its called nuclear deterrence. Learnt that from Metal Gear.

[EmmittBrownBTTF]

Cthulhu "destroyer of worlds" can explain but no one has survived being in his presence long enough to receive the complete answer or to pass it on to anyone else.

[brandonsimmons]

The end game with nuclear weapons is to have not endgame Mutual assured destruction us A attacks B. both A and B don't have to worry about who is winning because both are dead. This is the "science" or "idea" behind nuclear weapons not saying this makes sense

[SimplyHerpes]

Game theory explains our decision to have nukes and why other countries decide to acquire them.

[valhala]

If you want to blame 2 people for nuclear weapons it would be Leó Szilárd who went to Albert Einstein, stating the Nazi were on the verge of getting an atomic bomb, Leó Szilárd urged Einstein to write a letter to President Rooselvelt telling/explaining this to the President, this started us off on stockpiling Nuclear weapons and really it is just sheer luck that we have yet to use them against people except the two bombings in WW2.

[SickCustoms]

The marshall plan is the proudest part of american history.