Is one obligated to turn the key?

[Silurian]

Crop failure + mass cancer die-off.

People can survive famine and war at the same time without the collapse of civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_the_Siege_of_Leningrad_on_the_city

Unless there is some kind of cobalt doomsday device the fallout is not going to cause mass cancer die off. Cancer caused by the worldwide fallout will kill people but not all at once and not everyone.

 

[Phrossack]

People can survive famine and war at the same time without the collapse of civilization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_the_Siege_of_Leningrad_on_the_city

Unless there is some kind of cobalt doomsday device the fallout is not going to cause mass cancer die off. Cancer caused by the worldwide fallout will kill people but not all at once and not everyone.

Leningrad's different. The siege was eventually lifted, and the outside world was still largely functioning. With global nuclear war, the infrastructure to produce and ship just about anything will be in ruins, and it won't recover so easily.

 

[nerdfighter13]

I'd go with no because I don't see the reason for causing any more damage, because all those nukes going off isn't going to help anyone, least of all yourself.

 

[Silurian]

Leningrad's different. The siege was eventually lifted, and the outside world was still largely functioning. With global nuclear war, the infrastructure to produce and ship just about anything will be in ruins, and it won't recover so easily.

But we were talking about one country being nuked.

this is what I was replying too my highlight

Given the original scenario, the difference between retaliation and not is total human annihilation and stone age. Nuking a large power into oblivion would collapse civilization, even without the extreme interference global rocket tag would provoke.

 

[Rashiminos]

But we were talking about one country being nuked.

this is what I was replying too my highlight

You responded to my comment about an entire (large) nation be nuked until no asset was left with an example with only one city being contested by conventional means. That you thought the comparison was valid in no way helps your prior statement. You need to scale your thinking up. Since you used a Russian city, try imagining all military installations and civilians in Russia being directly nuked (not left to die in the aftermath, but destroyed in actual explosions if targetable), and then figure out where the dust and radiation goes. (Hint: everywhere.)