I do find the destruction of capital cities from “decapitation strikes” especially worrying, for three reasons.
1) they disrupt NC3 systems
II) they remove the highest levels of leadership and thus make command hierarchies less clear to both sides
III) as you note, they involve the destruction of cities. I would be very surprised if a US—Russia nuclear war broke out without Washington DC and Moscow being hit with multiple nuclear weapons.
The question becomes—can the destruction of most cities be avoided even with a few being destroyed? It seems unclear. Airports are another very problematic target, as they’re always located near cities and provide backup runaways to military aircraft. Huge fallout problem for cities.
I do find the destruction of capital cities from “decapitation strikes” especially worrying, for three reasons.
1) they disrupt NC3 systems
II) they remove the highest levels of leadership and thus make command hierarchies less clear to both sides
III) as you note, they involve the destruction of cities. I would be very surprised if a US—Russia nuclear war broke out without Washington DC and Moscow being hit with multiple nuclear weapons.
The question becomes—can the destruction of most cities be avoided even with a few being destroyed? It seems unclear. Airports are another very problematic target, as they’re always located near cities and provide backup runaways to military aircraft. Huge fallout problem for cities.
Agree. Also some cities have military ports, like San Diego.