The Nuclear Worries
The art of warfare had not been the same throughout the history; he started speaking when I had settled down in my chair. The differences existing between the battles and a war were much clearer than they did in the old days, when a single battle often decided the fate of the combating armies. There were not many fronts, not many simultaneous activities of the entire governmental apparatus or attachment of human resources in those wars, which were often decided by two combating forces in some large battlefield. The rules of combat were well defined and often the civil populations were spared greater damage. That wasn’t due to respect for human dignity or because of the sanctity of life but simply because the victor wanted to occupy a somewhat functioning land and subjects so that they could get the maximum profit from the enterprise.
The weapons used in wars have also changed through the passage of time, where the modern weapons had always played a decisive role in winning the wars. Babar brought the modern artillery from central Asia and the traditional armies of Indian kings using the elephants were baffled and lost despite large armies, the British brought modern techniques from Europe and Moghuls were forced to recede and give way. The world after two great wars had changed forever and was never to be the same again. The use of tanks, armored vehicles, the heavy artillery were not going anywhere and yet the new machines like Submarines, Helicopters, surveillance planes, transport planes, Jet fighters and other inventions were to get the central role in any given war. The same was true of Missiles, heavy bombs, Anti-Missiles, Nuclear weapons, satellites and other weapons that had been developed since the start of the war.
When Nazi Germany conceded its defeat, its ally Japan still was strong and defiant, giving worries to Allied forces. The devastated world couldn’t proclaim a clear victory till the moment even Japan gave up. The dropping of Atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to seek an end to the war. Japan was shocked and humiliated, two of its cities got badly damaged and hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants of these cities were either dead or died later due to radiation. That was the first and last time anyone used the atomic bombs in a war. The world was horrified to learn that such destructive weapons had been developed by the scientists. The Americans invoked both fear and awe from both friends and foes and no doubts were left as to its position as a superpower. It was for the first time the realization came that the world had changed the rules of the game and a new adjustment to the reality was necessary if the balances were to be achieved. If the Americans were to stay the sole owners of that gigantic power than no one could stop them from dictating their own conditions. Both friends and enemies of USA tried desperately to match that colossal power, which lay in their hands in shape of Atomic weapons. The Soviet Union, France, Britain and China were quick to join the Atomic Club. It was very interesting to note that all permanent members of the Security Council were nuclear; giving the world very wrong signals that might was still right and that the future of the world lay in the hands of few nations alone, who could destroy it by using the weapons of mass destruction.
The world had learnt very many lessons from the war and also knew that the rules of engagement had changed for all times to come. Gone were the days when the armies decided the fate of people at some safe distance by fighting desperate battles. The modern wars were all about the civil populations, where the enemy hit the infrastructure and defenses as a first step. The elimination of air defenses made a nation crippled, unable to stop the invading jet fighters that destroyed the infrastructure. With decreased capacity to move the army units and an overwhelming supremacy of the skies,, the nation under attack get reduced to an impotent role. The local populations were systematically attacked to spread the dismay and terror among the citizens of that nation. It stood also clear that in some extreme cases even mass destruction of enemy populations could also be justified as it was done in Japan’s case.