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rustqt6 | 3 years ago

What is more likely? US lost or US laundered?

Can't answer? Thought experiment time. Replace US with the president from your opposite party. What happens now? Lost or laundered?

discuss

order

Barrin92|3 years ago

Lost, by a mile (or potentially being a product of faulty inventory to begin with). The logistics involving nuclear weaponry are so extreme and involve so many people that something getting lost is more likely than some kind of crime.

Do you think presidents can smuggle a nuclear warhead across borders with a donkey or something? Reagan couldn't even manage to sell weapons to fund a bunch of terrorists under the table.

pessimizer|3 years ago

> The logistics involving nuclear weaponry are so extreme and involve so many people that something getting lost is more likely than some kind of crime.

The logistics being so extreme and involving so many people is evidence against loss, not for it. Also, the US placing nukes in a place that only a few silent people are aware of is not a crime.

> Do you think presidents can smuggle a nuclear warhead across borders with a donkey or something?

Do you think they can lose them down the kitchen sink drain, or accidentally leave them in a cab?

kayodelycaon|3 years ago

Losing a bomb is pretty easy. It just requires a convergence of mistakes. Laundering it requires you make those mistakes happen and avoid anyone finding out you did it.

I’d go with lost.

hypertele-Xii|3 years ago

But nobody did find out. The bombs are still missing.

khuey|3 years ago

Atomic bombs are useful for blowing stuff up (which requires detonating them) or threatening to blow stuff up (which requires other people knowing you possess them). "Laundering" a bomb that remains unknown for 50 years doesn't seem that useful.

MichaelCollins|3 years ago

At least one country sees value in being deliberately ambiguous about possessing nuclear weapons.

RichardHesketh|3 years ago

Unless it was taken apart by another state for research purposes…

missedthecue|3 years ago

I'm sorry but I can't even imagine my least favorite president of all time laundering an atom bomb

pydry|3 years ago

Can you imagine a hostile nation paying some relatively low level military personnel to deliberately fuck up at a crucial point in time?

keyle|3 years ago

"never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity..." -Hanlon's razor

hackingthenews|3 years ago

I personally find this saying extremely overrated and damaging in many cases. Especially considering the pacifying effect it can have on attempting to undo certain injustices.

Best use of it is in your personal life with family, friends, retail worker in your local grocery shop etc.

dbg31415|3 years ago

Would assume stolen by Russia or China… espionage to reverse engineer our tech to see if they could find flaws or exploits to reduce its effectiveness, or ideas to improve their own designs.

Makes me feel safer anyway since the bomb would be out of commission.

So these bombs, if found, they aren’t just pull the pin and chuck it to detonate, right? would they even pose a risk of found by a civilian?

kayodelycaon|3 years ago

Depending on the age and composition of the bomb, it might not even be a viable weapon anymore. A lot of the early ones had pretty short shelf lives.

temp0826|3 years ago

>> Would assume stolen by Russia or China…

The CIA would be my personal first guess