Dartz, let me first start off with “in a sane world, you would be right.” (Un?) Fortunately, we don’t have any sane, mad dictators here in IST. Well, we do, they’re the ones not getting involved. This isn’t a sane world—it’s being driven mad. Keep the quote from above in mind “more than willing to use them.”
All that said there are a few other things. First off, you have supers who completely change the balance of power. A nuke is “predictable,” a super-powered person is not.
Second, this isn’t the first time nukes have been played with in IST. The PLO has been using them, fairly judiciously, for some time. Libya is known to have, at least, a hundred. Iraq and Iran entered an actual nuclear and chemical war with each other. They’re a “fact” of 20th century warfare in the IST world. I am elaborating on that.
Third, you have nations ruled by metahumans. If a terrorist organization decided to base themselves in such a nation, attacking them would be dangerous.
I do understand your dislike for nuke-spam. However, in the IST world, it is precisely what would happen. That genie has long been out of the bottle. Keep in mind that, in the IST world, strategic nukes are all gone—at least, in theory. Retaliatory strikes have to be delivered. Many nations will see nukes as the only option they have for removing the super hero factor from any combat equation. While nukes are still terrifying weapons, they’ve been used. That goes a long way toward making them “okay” to use.
I mean, look at BattleTech. When the Word of Blake started lobbing nukes around it wasn’t very long before the rest of the Inner Sphere broke out their stockpiles of NBC weapons and started using them judiciously as well. Heck, Clan Wolf in Exile/the Kell Hounds stole nukes from the WoB and used them on Clan Wolf to get them to join in against the WoB.
If, in our world, the PLO had, as in the case of the IST world, used a half-dozen nukes on Israel, Bin Laden would have been much more likely to go nuclear against the US. However, this really isn’t the place for a discussion about nuclear terrorism as it relates to our world. This is about IST. And, nuclear terrorism is a fact of IST.
And, as I pointed out, the people using nukes A, have a history of doing so (Libya and the PLO). B, are a rogue nation (South Africa). Or, C, no one is sure what the heck they’re thinking (China).
In a real world, you are spot on. No sane person would want to use nukes. Heck, many insane people are smart enough to not use them. But, this world has already seen it happen. To the people who use them, mad or sane, they’re just another weapon. A powerful, dangerous weapon, but a weapon none-the-less.
But, again, I've got everything on hold until Bob has a chance to catch up on the thread.
All that said there are a few other things. First off, you have supers who completely change the balance of power. A nuke is “predictable,” a super-powered person is not.
Second, this isn’t the first time nukes have been played with in IST. The PLO has been using them, fairly judiciously, for some time. Libya is known to have, at least, a hundred. Iraq and Iran entered an actual nuclear and chemical war with each other. They’re a “fact” of 20th century warfare in the IST world. I am elaborating on that.
Third, you have nations ruled by metahumans. If a terrorist organization decided to base themselves in such a nation, attacking them would be dangerous.
I do understand your dislike for nuke-spam. However, in the IST world, it is precisely what would happen. That genie has long been out of the bottle. Keep in mind that, in the IST world, strategic nukes are all gone—at least, in theory. Retaliatory strikes have to be delivered. Many nations will see nukes as the only option they have for removing the super hero factor from any combat equation. While nukes are still terrifying weapons, they’ve been used. That goes a long way toward making them “okay” to use.
I mean, look at BattleTech. When the Word of Blake started lobbing nukes around it wasn’t very long before the rest of the Inner Sphere broke out their stockpiles of NBC weapons and started using them judiciously as well. Heck, Clan Wolf in Exile/the Kell Hounds stole nukes from the WoB and used them on Clan Wolf to get them to join in against the WoB.
If, in our world, the PLO had, as in the case of the IST world, used a half-dozen nukes on Israel, Bin Laden would have been much more likely to go nuclear against the US. However, this really isn’t the place for a discussion about nuclear terrorism as it relates to our world. This is about IST. And, nuclear terrorism is a fact of IST.
And, as I pointed out, the people using nukes A, have a history of doing so (Libya and the PLO). B, are a rogue nation (South Africa). Or, C, no one is sure what the heck they’re thinking (China).
In a real world, you are spot on. No sane person would want to use nukes. Heck, many insane people are smart enough to not use them. But, this world has already seen it happen. To the people who use them, mad or sane, they’re just another weapon. A powerful, dangerous weapon, but a weapon none-the-less.
But, again, I've got everything on hold until Bob has a chance to catch up on the thread.