On the Edge of a Knife

This rant is based on the chances of a nuclear war and the advantages and disadvantages of Nuclear Apocalypse. Not a very large topic as you can see, just a bit of light discussion about, well, the lives of around 8 billion people and the chance of nuclear apocalypse.

Since the end of the Second-World-War, there has been little conflict on the scale of a world-war or even close for that matter and that is due to the invention of the atomic bomb. After the surrender of Japan at the end of the second-world-war, both the USA and the USSR raced to build up their stocks of this exceptionally powerful weapon. Not only did both sides build up their stocks of atomic bombs, new weapons were developed. The USA and the rest of the "Allies" formed NATO and the USSR and other assorted eastern countries formed the "Warsaw Pact". The board was set, the pieces were ready to move. The move never came. Despite both sides preparing for the worst and even, in cases like the Cuban Missile Disaster, coming close to starting a nuclear war, both sides never actually came to blows. The Cold War cooled down. Still the danger lingered and more countries developed nuclear weapons. Today, UN forces are still fighting in Afghanistan to stop the Taliban and in some cases Al-Qaeda from gaining a nuclear weapon. World politics balances on a knife edge. One wrong move and the whole world tumbles into nuclear apocalypse, and Fallout 3 becomes more of a reality than fiction.

Of course some people claim that this would be a good thing, Al-Qaeda would use this to destroy "the west" and therefore most of Christianity, in fact, a nuclear  war would very quickly turn into a religious one. Nevertheless, there are some secular (non-religious) parties (I think) that would welcome the chance of nuclear apocalypse for reasons such as purifying human genes, re-organizing laws and religion and other such tasks that are impossible and seen as insane to all but figures like Stalin and Hitler. It is a terrifying prospect to know that world politics balance on a knife edge but only one to consider and ponder on if you are a major world leader, if not then feel special and don't criticize important world leaders for their mistakes too much, you never know what they might have up their metaphorical sleeve...