When most people think about nuclear war, they think about mutually assured destruction AND an extinction level event ~ no sun for 3 years, everything contaminated, etc. I am not one of those people. Most radioactive fallout is from the irradiated dust kicked up from surface detonations. Every nuclear power out there knows that nukes are far more destructive detonated above the ground. If you were the person launching, wouldn't you want to maximize destruction while minimizing global fallout levels? Okay, so we are probably not going to block out the sun and kill all the dinosaurs as these will not be surface detonations. On top of that, this planet has already witnessed hundreds of surface tests and, short of some pre-treaty thyroid cancer from the 1960's, we are all still here. So, we already know that we can easily survive hundreds (edit: over 2,000) of them going off, and we also know that they will likely be atmospheric detonations to maximize destruction. The nuclear powers know this, and while they benefit from the fear the idea of war creates, I believe they are far less adverse to actually pressing the button than 99% of the population believes. What are your thoughts?
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