Quote:
Originally Posted by Ayrahb
If any country uses nukes as a first strike, it will be Israel because they know they could get away with it. Although, that could provoke Russia or China, proving that the nutjob Armageddon evangelists were right all along.
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Bad analysis, Isreal has had more then ample reasons to use Nukes before, Its assumed that they had nuclear weapons as far back as 1968, In 1973 in the Yom Kippur war the Israeli armed forces were beaten back by Egyptian and Syrian armor during the first days of the war and the logical course of action would have been the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the combined Arab armored columns, but Israel abstained.
Out of the governments in place in the middle east, Israel's is probably the most rational in terms of the use of weapon's of mass destruction. Out of all the middle east nations, Libya used chemical munitions against Chad in 87, Iran against Iraq, Iraq against Iran, Egypt against Yemon from 1963-1967, Israel has never deployed chemical, nuclear or biological weapons even though it has been in a state of war since its inception.
As far as the statement that they could get away with it, I don't think I understand what your getting at, are you talking from a retaliation standpoint? Because they certainly wouldn't get away with it as most of the Arab nations have vast stocks of advanced chemical weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems. Or are you talking about international law, because the UN certainly hasn't been a friend to Israel over the later half of the 20th century.
Its unlikely that Russia or China would care enough to get involved in a nuclear exchange in the middle east because the U.S. would almost certainly get involved in that conflict and their treaty agreements with Israel is similar to the NATO treaty in that the use of weapons of mass destruction on Israeli soil is like an attack on the U.S. itself, and the Russian and Chinese nuclear arsenal does not even come close to the total yield and accuracy and overkill in the U.S. arsenal.