From: Robbie Lindauer (robblin@thetip.org)
Date: Fri Sep 05 2003 - 12:56:08 MDT
> The opinion-movers would flee the major cities, after which it would
> never be in their interest to have their country surrender.
Obviously, following Trotsky, you'd have to kill them FIRST.
> Publicly, the first attempt at blackmail, much less the first
> explosion, would be met with outrage and vows to die before
> surrendering.
Depends on how well you negotiated with their enemies.
If you've vowed to blow up America in defense of Alla to the Arabs, and
in defense of the Empire to the Japanese, etc., you could go a long way.
While Americans are bull-headed, it's unclear how they'd respond to a
genuine nuclear threat by a foe that obviously will use them and has
nothing to lose.
> Neither the public nor the aristocracy is likely to countenance
> surrender no matter how many cities die.
I think you overestimate human will - cowardice drives civilization -
we organize and let the stronger people lead IN ORDER to save our own
skins from them. Witness feudal lordships.
with the US federal government gone, there'd quickly be local
organizations (state troopers, etc.) that would attempt to maintain
order, but with the looming threat of nuclear holocaust, how many
people would really, say, continue to follow Gray Davis?
Now, if the TEAM we willing to nuke Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Sacramento and San Jose, it probably wouldn't matter much WHAT Gray
Davis did, would it?
The remnants would then be in the position of deciding whether to
surrender or to fight back against this unassailable opponent. Sure
it'd be a long slow process, but as I said, if you're willing to risk
nuclear holocaust and your opponent isn't, you'll win in the stare-down.
> Countries may surrender to invading armies, but not small clever bands
> of blackmailers - it just doesn't trigger our submission reflex. I
> think the visceral emotional reaction to this scenario would be very
> simple; crush the little upstart rodents no matter the cost. There
> are no nuclear weapons in the ancestral environment.
I guess it would depend on what the upstarts consider victory - if
eliminating the governments of the world-superpowers and being the
remaining superpower would be sufficient, I think THAT much could be
accomplished.
The rest would be a question of recruiting - could you get the Chinese
Hordes to overrun the Russians in exchange for your nuclear backing?
Maybe, maybe not.
Could you get the Pakistanis to overrun India - absolutely.
could you get the Serbs to overrun middle-europe? Probably.
Could you get another Russian Revolution with nuclear backing, probably.
I think the only troublesome countries would be the US and China,
themselves already being run by "the right 10 people".
The question would be whether or not you could hit them effectively.
Best,
Robbie
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