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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Animation shows how 1 'tactical' nuclear weapon could trigger a US-Russia war that kills 34 million people in 5 hours
2020-01-24
[Bus Insider] More than 91 million people in Russia, the US, and NATO-allied countries might be killed or injured within three hours following a single "nuclear warning shot," according to a terrifying new simulation.

The simulation is called "Plan A," and it's an audio-visual piece that was first posted to to YouTube on September 6. (You can watch the full video at the end of this story.) Researchers at the Science and Global Security lab at Princeton University created the animation, which shows how a battle between Russia and NATO allies that uses so-called low-yield or "tactical" nuclear weapons ‐ which can pack a blast equivalent to those the US used to destroy Hiroshima or Nagasaki in World War II ‐ might feasibly and quickly snowball into a global nuclear war.

"This project is motivated by the need to highlight the potentially catastrophic consequences of current US and Russian nuclear war plans. The risk of nuclear war has increased dramatically in the past two years," the project states on its website.

The video has an ominous, droning soundtrack and a digital map design straight out of the 1983 movie "WarGames." The Cold War-era movie, in which a young Matthew Broderick accidentally triggers a nuclear war, "was exactly the reference point," simulation designer Alex Wellerstein told Insider.

But while simulations can be frightening, they can also be incredibly helpful: governments can use them to develop contingency plans to respond to nuclear disasters and attacks in the least escalatory way, and they can also help ordinary citizens learn how to survive a nuclear attack.

"Plan A" comes as tensions between Russia and NATO allies ratchet up. Both Russia and the US are testing weapons previously banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, often called INF. Russian bombers have also cruised into US airspace repeatedly, and the US recently sent its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber on a mission in the Arctic ‐ right in Russia's backyard.

This is how a NATO-Russian confrontation could quickly escalate into nuclear war.
Posted by:Besoeker

#12  Wait, did that plane launch from Lithuania?

Did they run the simulation on AutoCAD?

China et al so cool with missile overflights?

Nobody thumped Pakistain just because?

This all looks like someone trying to learn to code. The game Defcon comes across as more realistic.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-01-24 15:14  

#11  Did they run the simulation on the WOPR?
Posted by: AlanC   2020-01-24 13:11  

#10  Um... this has been a known possibility for governments since 1958.

Stalin got the bomb in 1949. I've been living with this reality my entire life. I first learned about it when I was four years old. It's a helluva thing for a kid that young to learn and I was traumatized. But I decided not to live my life as if there is no tomorrow because, when tomorrow comes, I wouldn't be prepared for it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2020-01-24 13:11  

#9  It's a retarded scenario. No one will detonate a nuke against an opponent with a second strike capability. No one. Typical BS liberal crap.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2020-01-24 12:58  

#8  Theme of multiple books and movies I recall from the 60s.
Posted by: Glenmore   2020-01-24 10:59  

#7  Number 5 captures it.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-01-24 09:30  

#6  I thought the 'end of the world clock' has been stuck at 11:58 pm for years. How can they move it any closer to 'doomsday'?
Posted by: Bobby   2020-01-24 09:26  

#5  The risk of nuclear war has increased dramatically in the past two years

... because The Shitshow has all but forced Trump into an excessively confrontational posture vs Russia in order to dispel these foolish, false assertions that he's Putin's puppet. In reality he's been Putin's nightmare.

Which is a really stupid policy, given that we badly need Russia to contain China and that we have next to no interests in the borderlands adjoining Russia's southern flank.

We need to quickly arrive at a rapprochement with Russia over Ukraine, probably the Baltics and maybe Belarus as well. Finlandization on the Cold War model would work.
Posted by: Lex   2020-01-24 09:24  

#4  The best move is... not to play.

/oblig
Posted by: Raj   2020-01-24 09:23  

#3  Um... this has been a known possibility for governments since 1958.

So... welcome to the party?
Posted by: DarthVader   2020-01-24 09:20  

#2  Hank Blodgett is an insider trading convict who runs a rag now...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-01-24 09:16  

#1  I'm not saying we won't get our hair mussed.

Gen. Buck Turgidson
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-01-24 09:13  

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