Do nuclear weapons actually prevent major wars and maintain peace?

[Anonymous]

I believe that to a substantial extent they do. It has been 81 years since there was a significant conflict between two major powers when even one of them possessed nuclear weapons. This has not occurred by accident. nuclear weapons are weapons whose primary function is not to be used. For example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, both the U. S. and Soviet Union stepped back from the brink because leaders understood the catastrophic consequences.

No I want my country to have nuclear weapons, and I don't want anybody else to have them unless I approve of it. I don't care if it starts a war.

My country is the only country that can be trusted to have nuclear weapons. Nobody is as trustworthy as we are, although our history doesn't show this.

Until we figure out a better way of controlling this problem, maybe it's better if there is a symmetry in the possession of nuclear weapons so that nobody is tempted to use them.

[WindAtMyBack]

It doesn't prevent war and maintain peace. But it does prevent nuclear wars, as long as the countries with nukes are sane. It only works because no rational mind would start a nuclear war.

You don't want them, but as long as one country has them, then other countries should have them. But you don't want to take that too far. There is already a balance, and it does no good to add more nuclear powers, and possibly great harm.

We went to great lengths to drastically reduce the number of nukes in the world. We don't want to undo all that.

[888theGreat]

Yes, look at what Rocket man is doing in North Korea right now. Has US threatened to invade him?

[strateguy632]

OBVIOUSLY NOT prevent major wars. Korean war was not prevented. Vietnamese war was not prevented involved our and Russian soviet warplanes in 1970s just 50 years ago. South vietnam is gone and forgotten! Ukraine is a friggin MAJOR WAR!

[strateguy632]

I mean superpowers DID battle each other in those wars.

[Asker]

It's hard to know how many, if any, major wars have been prevented. You are correct that the Korean War was not prevented, and Vietnam was not prevented, but Vietnam didn't originate with the U. S. Not really. The US just made it a whole lot worse.

[strateguy632]

Vietnam was before you were born so i don't expect you to know its real history.

[Asker]

This may surprise you, but I can read, and I can listen, and I can talk. I take care of veterans that were in Vietnam.

[Asker]

They didn't battle each other but more or less by proxy.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

They “prevent” war the same way the police force “prevents” crime. The police can’t act until after a crime has been committed, the threat of punishment by arrest, trial, and prison is a social deterrent against criminal acts. Does this actually stop crimes from happening? No, not really. And I can get into a whole, long political rant about that but I’m not going to. But in that same vein the threat of nuclear war does not actually stop wars from happening with that nation.

[Asker]

I think both the police and nuclear weapons prevent crime in the sense that they are deterrents. There must be a certain number of people who think about doing crimes and decide that tangling with the police isn't worth it. I would also think that there are a certain number of countries that think about starting wars and then think about tangling with nuclear weapons and decide it isn't worth it. It's hard to know how many countries and people that is, but even one person or country is good.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Yes, they’re deterrents but not guarantees

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

They also don’t actually solve the issue they try to solve

[Asker]

Unfortunately, they are not, but I take note that there are no guarantees in this life.

[Asker]

I don't think that there is any solution to war except peace.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

…peace is not the solution to war, it is the absence of war. In order to stop war, the solution is either to win, or surrender

[Asker]

That is a temporary halt, nothing more.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

This is getting overly philosophical

[Pterodon]

To the idiots that want Iran having nukes. Yes they or their proxies would use them. They scream death to America and Israel everyday. They’re a death cult. They fly planes into buildings, strap explosives to themselves and walk into malls and blow themselves up. You’re naïve if you think you can use diplomacy. Diplomacy is why we’re here now. They want to kill you just for being American. They don’t care if they die in the process

[Asker]

Yeah sure. Everybody's out to get you. Nobody cares if they get hurt as long as they get you. Makes total sense right?

[Pterodon]

Yes. Here’s the other thing. Iran doesn’t have the means to nuke us. But they do Israel. That’s who they would nuke. Israel would respond since that’s always been their policy and they’ll fire nukes back and there goes WWIII

[Pterodon]

I really don’t feel I need to explain to an anonymous coward

[Asker]

You just assume that you know these things, but I don't think your logic is shared by everyone. You are certainly not completely wrong in thinking that this might be the case, but you aren't right either, and there are costs to your ideas.

[Pterodon]

There are no costs to the Arabs. They’re more than willing to die for their cause

[Asker]

How is it that you know their intentions or preferences so well, apparently?

[Pterodon]

Their history stupid

[Asker]

So if I understand it correctly, you don't have an explanation?

[Asker]

I'm sorry. I think I didn't get past your insult there. As far as you are concerned, history explains the future completely? Circumstances do not change?

[Pterodon]

I answered your question

[Asker]

Okay, I just want to make sure I have it right because, actually, I would really like to understand your reasoning.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you believe that history is a complete and reliable predictor of the future. Is that correct? I am not trying to insult you here; I am trying to understand your thinking.

[Agape93]

Yeap. Think about it. If I have my shotgun, and everyone else has bb guns, I have 0 incentive to listen to them. If they also have one, I gotta at least pay attention

[Pterodon]

Oh c’mon. You just get a bigger gun and kill them

[Agape93]

True. I'm just trying to dumb down the analogy for the libs here

[jshm2]

No. But they are not conventional weapons either.

[Asker]

That is what makes the deterrent effect so powerful.

[Asker]

I think in a mathematical sense the more destructive a weapon is the less likely it is to be used. Hopefully and somebody once describe nuclear weapons as having the sole purpose of deterring their own use.

[Anonymous]

Yes provided leaders aren't Islamic extremists.

For the record the Soviets didn't step back. It was JFK who stepped back. The Soviets instigated the whole Cuban missile crisis to get American atomic weapons out of turkey, which America did. For them it was mission accomplished but to save face JFK & LBJ declared victory just like subsequent US governments would with the Vietnam war and Afghanistan war and soon Iran war.

[Asker]

You have absolutely no idea what "Islamic extremists" might or might not do in this situation. You are just making assumptions based on your own prejudices and biases.

[Opinion Owner]

Whatever they do im sure being both Islamic and extremists whatever they will do will involve an extreme attack on Israel or the United States.

[Asker]

I see, and what makes you an expert that you know that?

[Asker]

Now link to some of that 45-year history. The fact that you're saying it doesn't make it true.

[Opinion Owner]

2003-2011: Iranian-backed militias kill at least 603 U. S. troops in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. Iranian training and material support for Iraqi militias during the surge greatly increased the difficulty of U. S. forces to combat the insurgency and included some of the deadliest weapons used against American troops, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

August 2003: A Hamas suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American. A total of 24 people died in the attack.

August 2006: Hezbollah fighters kill American citizen Michael Levin, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during the Second Lebanon War. He is the only American to die in the conflict.

January 2007: Twelve men affiliated with the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disguised themselves as U. S. soldiers, entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in the Iraqi city of Karbala, killed five U. S. soldiers, and wounded another three. In 2019, the U. S. State Department issued a $15 million bounty for information on an IRGC Quds Force commander who planned the attack and other “assassinations of coalition forces in Iraq.”...

[Opinion Owner]

July 2014: Hamas terrorists kill two Americans serving in the IDF during fighting between the terrorist group and Israel in Gaza as part of Operation Protective Edge.

October 2015: Hamas terrorists kill an American citizen and his wife, residents of the West Bank community of Neria, in their car in a drive-by shooting.

December 2019: Rockets fired by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, kills an American security contractor and wounds several U. S. service members and Iraqi personnel at the K1 military base in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

January 2020: A direct Iranian ballistic missile attack against the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq causes more than 100 U. S. troops to suffer traumatic brain injuries.

March 2020: The family of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007, announces that he likely died in an Iranian prison at an unknown date.

September 2020: U. S. intelligence reports indicate that Iran is weighing a plot to assassinate U. S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks...

[Opinion Owner]

February 2021: An rocket fired by an Iran-backed militia at coalition forces in the Iraqi city of Erbil wounds a U. S. service member and four U. S. civilian contractors.

July 2021: Iranian-backed militias conduct at least three rocket and drone attacks against U. S. forces in 24 hours in Iraq and Syria, wounding two U. S. service members.

September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack kills an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.

November 2022: A captain in Iran’s IRGC orchestrates the killing of an American citizen living in Baghdad who worked at an English language institute.

March 2023: An Iranian drone kills an American contractor and wounds five service members and another contractor when it strikes a coalition base near the Syrian city of Hasakah.

October 7, 2023: Hamas kills at least 48 Americans and kidnaps at least 12 Americans in a massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel.

December 2023: A drone attack conducted by an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia against U. S. forces in Erbil wounds three American soldiers, including one critically injured with shrapnel to the head that placed him in a coma.

January 2024: A drone launched by Kataib Hezbollah kills three U. S. soldiers at a U. S. military base in Jordan and wounded more than 40 other service members.

[Opinion Owner]

October 2024: Iran executes German-Iranian national and U. S. permanent resident Jamshid Sharmahd on fraudulent terrorism charges.

November 2024: A report released by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies indicates that Iran and its proxies have conducted more than 180 attacks against U. S. forces in the Middle East between October 17, 2023, and November 19, 2024, resulting in more than 180 wounded and three killed U. S. service members.

November 2024: The U. S. Department of Justice announces charges against an Iranian national and two American accomplices for plotting to assassinate President Trump.

March 2025: A U. S. jury convicts two agents of Iran for plotting to assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022.

June 2025: At least three U. S. bases in Syria and two U. S. bases in Iraq are attacked with missiles or drones, likely by Iranian-backed militias.

[Asker]

Get your goddamn bigotry off my question.

[Opinion Owner]

No bigotry here. Just the 45 years of history you asked for.

[Asker]

tinged by your bigotry.

[Opinion Owner]

Historical facts aren't bigoted

[Asker]

Okay, provide some evidence.

[Opinion Owner]

You have all the facts already. You just can't read.

[Asker]

I will continue to remove anything and everything that you put on here without supporting evidence. Everything else you say is simply lies and bigotry.

[Opinion Owner]

The evidence is there. there's a whole timeline that you can choose to look up. My Iranian neighbors who fled the evil Iranian regime are supporting Trump. Thats all I need.

[Asker]

Well, yeah, I guess your neighbors are the arbiters of all that is good and all that is bad, correct? What do you think they're really reacting to?

[Opinion Owner]

Just good people that escaped persecution by an evil regime.

[Asker]

So they say...

[Opinion Owner]

If not theyd still be in iran. There are litteraly millions of muslim refugees all over Europe that fled Islamic regimes and of course countries like Saudi Arabia, kuwait, Oman. Uae dont want them especially the Palestinians who have shit on every country that have taken them in, just ask Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

[Asker]

Check and find out how many American refugees there are.

[Opinion Owner]

Can those refugees return home without disappearing?

[Asker]

Go fuck yourself. You wouldn't know evidence if it bit you in the ass.

[Opinion Owner]

Hell the entire Iranian women's team wanted to defect up until they got call from relatives frightened by the Iranian regime.