On: In Nuclear Silos, Death Wears a Snuggie (2011)

[madengr]

Why does the author state MAD is obselete?

[sehugg → madengr]

I don't know, since those silos were dug in an era when the idea of a winnable nuclear war (i.e. anti-MAD) was a less-radical position.

This may just be more whistling past the hypothetical graveyard, which seems distressingly common these days.

[avs733 → madengr]

there is an argument by some that the rise of suicide bombing as a weapon of war meaningfully changed the parameters of mutually assured destruction, because there are people entirely comfortable/supportive of their own destruction for a cause.

[merpnderp → avs733]

This outlook seems historically ignorant. In the midst of the very first use of nuclear weapons there were hundreds of suicide attacks in the form of kamikazee suicide runs by aircraft, ships, and soldiers.

One of the likely reasons no terrorist group has tried too hard to obtain a nuclear weapon is they know whoever it is they fight for will be targeted for in kind retaliation. Aka MAD.