OK, here is one from my world. My job, for 5 years, was targeting our nukes. If I had too I would have did my best to wipe out as many Russians, military and otherwise, as I could. At a moments, notice.
You're oversimplifying and leaving out much in your pretty little ditty above - first and foremost, is that your job was as but
a tool ....
a mere cog in the wheels of a machine ...... of a
defense strategy commonly known as:
M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction)
It is, I should note,
most appropriately named ...
as for anyone to actually execute a nuclear response to a attack (nuclear or otherwise) by another major nuclear power - given the likelihood that it could result in escalation to a point to achieve mutual assured destruction ..... they would have to be quite mad indeed .....
The premise of that strategy, was to ensure
peace through the
prospect and
possibility of retaliation - with complete and utter annihilation to the party who would attack first.
The point was entirely to
not fight ....
quite simply because with thermonuclear war, the likely result is that there would be no winners ...... only losers .....
IOW, you have the weapons -
not to actually
use them - but
to keep someone else from using theirs.
As pointed out above, since there would be
no victors, only
total destruction of both sides (as well as perhaps others, due to nuclear fallout rendering this planet uninhabitable and life impossible), anyone actually considering pulling the trigger would have to be considered, by the remainder of humanity, as
certifiably insane ....
As Albert Einstein, one of the great thinkers of our day, likely correctly observed:
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"
And that's only if we're
extremely lucky .....
I could do it, could you?
Men who can be trained (much like Pavlov's dog) to
unthinkingly act without restraint and
without regard to ultimate consequences may very well have a legitimate and valid use to the human species .....
but they, necessarily, should be kept on very short leashes .... preferably fitted with a choke collar that has many very sharp spikes pointing inward .... one that is periodically given a strong jerk, that they might understand their place in the big scheme of things .....
Dress anything up in patriotism, country, the flag, Mom, and apple pie and I can guarantee you that there will be no shortage of takers .....
but the asylums are full of lunatics talking about the martians that are following them too ...
However these folks (not those in the asylums ..... but the ones that aren't ....
but likely should be), being the less rational (
and perhaps more emotional) among us, are not the type of people who ought to be entrusted with certain decisions (going to, and engaging in, war .... certainly being one of them)
That is the reality of the world. Life, and death, is tough and real. Not fairy tale books.
As a totally and brutally honest (as well as entirely
practical) matter, one could say that such folks as above are perfectly fine for ........
cannon fodder ...
Given their aggressive and warlike tendencies, the remainder of civilized humanity would likely be well-served, and quite possibly better off, if we allowed them to fight and kill each other off ....
The only problem with that idea, is that such folks -
not being the brightest bulbs in the candelabra - tend to create a very dangerous environment for all, ruin playing fields and gameboards, and involve others who would prefer not to participate in the dramatization of their insanities ....
That is the reality of the world.
