There is no such thing as a “small” nuclear war. Even limited use would trigger mass death, famine and global collapse.

As West Asia stumbles towards a ‘small nuclear war’, it is time to evaluate the consequences for the entirety of humanity and the Planet.

A small nuclear war, by definition, is one involving the use of so-called tactical or battlefield nukes, low yield weapons (1000-50,000 tonnes of TNT equivalent) designed chiefly for a military objective, delivered as aerial bombs, shells, small missiles, torpedoes, mines etc. It does not involve the use of ICBMs, MIRVs, “city busters” and large-scale strategic weapons.

For comparison, the weapons that levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki had yields of 15,000 and 21,000 tonnes respectively, which today would probably rate them as tactical weapons.

However, with practically all of the world’s nuclear treaties and restraints crumbling, it is now almost inevitable that one regime or another will experiment with the smaller nukes and seek to regularise their use, primarily as a means of terrorising their opponents. Only 74 of 197 nations have signed the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. None of the nuclear-armed states or their close allies have signed.

Informed commentators on the Israel-USA-Iran conflict consider the use of nukes, probably by Israel in the first instance, to be increasingly likely as the war goes against them and both Trump and Netanyahu fight to stay out of jail. Israeli Ministers have previously uttered threats to employ nuclear force, though they were later silenced by Netanyahu.

US official documents indicate the America has been preparing for a limited nuclear war for over seven years. Trump has refused to rule out use of nukes, and military observers suspect the US already has them in the West Asian theatre. He has also declared his intent to restart nuclear testing. Authoritative commentators are asking whether Trump is mentally ill – and the world’s most potent nuclear arsenal in the hands of a madman.

Compounding the danger is the frequent........

© Pearls and Irritations