OT: Nuclear War???

[TerranC]

If, for example, North Korea launched a nuke at the US because one of their leaders was a little bit loopy,

That's a rhetorical question, right?

what do you think the US would do?? Wait until they got another few nukes thrown at them, or nuke 'em back??

Hopefully, the US will have developped sufficient missile defense programs/systems by then; It's not as if NK nukes (if they exist) are high tech, most of them would be scuds with with a plutonium bar attached. But should one hit, it is most likely that the US will retaliate, but not with nukes.

It's really an unwinnable situation, since if they DON'T nuke them back, they run the risk of having other fringe countries throwning nukes at them, since they know the risk of nuclear retaliation would be minimal.

Fringe countries throwing nukes at the US? Take out North Korea and how many Fringe countries are there? Iran and Syria? Iran, if it wanted to, would rather nuke Israel first, and Syria is dirt poor; almost if not all of their military hardware is cold war-era French and Soviet equipement. You should be worrying more about dirty bombs from terrorist organizations and mountain men than state-to-state nuclear warfare.

But if they DO nuke them, then they run the risk of North Korea's supporters getting involved (China) which could then easily lead to worldwide nuclear war.

If the US nukes North Korea, they run the risk of nuking South Korea and Manchuria, radiating a bit of Japan and areas near Beijing, and sterilzing the Sea of Japan and the Yellow sea.

By that time, you shouldn't worry about China nuking the US, you should worry about the whole world nuking the US.

It will happen. It's only a question of when.

Think happy thoughts, now. For every psychopath, there are hundreds of goodwilled rational men and women.