Dear Neil and all,
I am responding very late to your posting on 2nd May because the impact of nuclear war is so hard to contemplate. This is indeed an extremely dangerous time, even in comparison with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. And since nuclear weapons can't be uninvented, it is a matter not of if they will be detonated, accidentally or intentionally, but rather of when. Possibly the least awful hope for humanity and other life on earth would be detonation of one or more tactical, battlefield nuclear weapons, but retaining 'command, control, communications and intelligence' intact. That could inoculated human kind against further use for many decades. History suggests that experience of war persuades us not to fight, but in time the lesson wears off. The Napoleonic wars killed an estimated 7 million people and there was no war bigger than the Crimean War in Europe for 99 years. It is now 80 years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Best wishes
Stewart Britten
HIFA Profile: Stewart Britten is advisor to the British NGO, HealthProm, on its project to reduce maternal and child deaths in Northern Afghanistan. He has worked for the reduction of institutionalisation of babies and small children in Russia by introduction of parent support programmes. stewart.britten AT zen.co.uk