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The Argument For a Hypersonic Missile Testing Ban
Lasrick writes Mark Gubrud has a fascinating piece arguing for the U.S. to lead the way in calling for a ban on the testing of hypersonic missiles, a technology that the U.S. has been developing for decades. China has also started testing these weapons, which proponents optimistically claim would not be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Russia, India, and a few other countries are also joining in the fray, so a ban on testing would stop an arms race in its tracks. The article discusses the two types of hypersonic technology, and whether that technology has civilian applications.
Sounds fair...
So we can follow the ban and everyone else cheat?
You really think China would stop testing because of a treaty?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HO
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So this comes along just as Russia drops the word "Nuclear" to remind everyone that they have them.
Are you naive enough to believe the Russia would bother to show up to negotiate about this?
One also wonders what the people of Ukraine think about such a well timed suggestion.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
It is the kind of idiocy that makes the military industrial complex laugh and call you names.
There are good reasons to ban weapons - but not just because the weapon is good at killing people. To those in the military, effectiveness at killing people is a reason to BUILD the weapon, not ban it.
Chemical are banned not because they kill people, but because they are likely to kill civilians and your own soldiers as much as they kill the enemy. They also people and damage valuable land after you win.
A similar argument applies to biological weapons, land mines and nuclear weapons.
There is NOTHING in this article that would convince a soldier to ban the weapons. Instead, any military person, upon reading it will of course demand that we spend lots of money figuring out how to build hypersonic missiles.
If you dislike war, ban it. But you are probably not naive enough to try that. You would lose the argument because such an attempt has many many flaws. Well guess what - trying to ban weapon research because the weapon is too goo is just as naive.
WORST of all, your naive and foolish attempts make it much harder to ban the weapons we actually CAN ban - land mines, chemical and biological warfare.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
False.
Bans have worked well many times.
Yea, like Prohibition.. oh, wait, that was an abject failure... OK, then, drug prohibit... no, wait, that's a failure, too... maybe gun bans? No, no, people still kill each other with other weapons, so those don't work.
I guess what I'm saying here is, [citation needed]
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I think the big issue with these weapons is that they *will* become nuclear payload delivery systems
Which seems kind of idiotic, to me, since one could use kinetic bombardment (Rods from God) instead of nuclear weapons, and avoid all that nasty fallout badness.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Because nothing works like wagging your finger and pretending something doesn't exist.
Those things have absolutely nothing in common with what we're talking about.
The only similar agreement was the nuclear test ban. When you test a nuclear bomb, it creates an earthquake that everyone can detect. A hypersonic shockwave is easily detectable by satellites.
The deterrent to breaking this treaty is that you would definitely get caught.
A "ban", eh?
Good actors would comply, bad actors would not. Then bad actors would have them, good actors wouldn't.
And that's ... better? How?
Guns: Every country that has had a gun ban strongly enforced has had a reduction in homicides. Every. Single. One.
But violent crime goes up though, as criminals feel they can commit crimes without a risk of meeting an armed owner for instance.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
Moreover, testing was at a less critical phase. Nuclear test bans weren't going to get rid of nuclear bombs, or even necessarily improvements in them. It would just slow them down. If they had followed them in the first place.
What has been somewhat more effective is using various means to keep more nations from joining the nuclear club. But that is because getting the details right (the first time) is kind of hard, especially when sabotage is involved. I suspect you'll see a similar trend here, with the big players getting them and then trying to stop the smaller players from getting them.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Guns:
Every country that has had a gun ban strongly enforced has had a reduction in homicides. Every. Single. One.
Really? Weren't there something like four million homicides in Nazi Germany after the gun ban?
Or does it not count when the government does it?
Do you have any citation for your assertion?
Why are we modding up "I don't understand conservation of energy"? The only kinetic energy weapon that could sort of replace nuclear bombs would be bombardment with large asteroids, which no one currently has the capability to do and if they did would take ages to arrive. The kinetic rods would make great orbital armor or bunker piercing weapons, but there's no way they'll replace nuclear weapons.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways