[silver_pilate]

Actually, a new bomb hasn't been assembled in the United States in over 20 years. There hasn't been a nuclear test detonation since 1992 (the Divider test in September...underground at the Nevada Test Site).

I, personally, hope that a nuclear device is never used in any war, no matter how severe in the future. The use of two devices in WWII was a unique situation in which the US was the only side with the bomb. It saved hundreds of thousands of lives, both Japenese and American. However, the horrible truth was that it opened a whole new can of worms. Well, actually, the world was already headed in that direction with three countries working on their own atomic weapons before we used them in Japan.

Anyway, if the US, or any major power, uses nuclear device, it would open the door to all countries who now have the devices. Millions and millions would die, if the planet even survived.

The sad reality is that we have to have nuclear devices as a deterent. It's the assumption of no first strike. As long as your enemy knows that you'll remove them from the face of the earth in a tremendous fireball if they nuke you, everyone's happy. No one would dare to strike first. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to terrorists or little Napoleonistic third world countries trying to prove how badd-@$$ they are.

Those people who brought about the Trinity test, those in the Manhattan project, and those in Russia's and Englands atomic programs, had no idea what they were ussuring in.

--nathan