Is it possible, and perhaps even likely, that most of the world's nuclear weapons don't even work?

@Elessar You're "pretty optimistic", you say. Didn't you mean "pretty pessimistic", because, you know, no sane person wants them to work?

@Pambie If I were "pretty pessimistic" we'd be all without nuclear deterrence, back to the same situation that led to WW2 basically

Nukes are the only serious guarantee for peace

@Elessar Everyone completely disarming would be a much better guarantee for peace, don't you think?

@Pambie No, it's pure utopia incompatible with the very essence of human nature. Everyone disarming means that a single country in bad faith like Russia needs to maintain some nukes in secrecy and once everyone else is disarmed for real they can pull another Ukraine. And rest assured, countries that will do that will be more than countries that will go with disarmament for real.

The one and only security guarantee for peace is that if they try, they get evaporated. Nothing short of that works.

@Elessar It isn't "human nature" to want to destroy and kill. If it were, we'd all have the inclination to do it.
"...a single country in bad faith, like the United States..." - there, fixed it for you.

@Pambie Conflict is part of human nature and even other primates will go as far as beating/killing one another for resources. Whether we want to admit it or not, our species suck and peaceful cooperation is purely utopia that only work in Star Trek.

As I said, countries in bad faith are more than countries that will disarm for real. Essentially nobody outside western Europe and Africa would disarm, to just become the low hanging fruit for Russia, US and China to pick. If you think Russia is any better than the USA I have a Crimean bridge to sell you.

@Elessar You seem to be forgetting that "human nature" can be changed; we don't have to be the way we are, because we all have free will (unlike those "primates" you compare us to). No one has to be violent; that's a choice.
It's because of people like you that the world is in the mess that it's in now, because you're not even willing to try to make things better, and you're not willing to try because you've fallen for all of the lies about "human nature".

@Pambie You responded with a laughing face. What's so funny?

@Pambie Yeah, you're free to bend 90° to Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping all you want. You can even jump in a plane and go to Russia and America and spread the verb, maybe you'll convince them to vote out the fascist

Until you're done the rest of us will continue to rearm.

@Pambie I've responded to a laughing face with a laughing face. Same principle I'm defending for foreign politics: respond to military threats with stronger military threats

@Elessar
You see, this right here is the problem; excessive belligerence caused by excessive levels of testosterone. How do people like Xi and Putin get to be in the position they're in in the first place? I know the answer to that, but do you? Can you guess?

@Pambie And you think passively waiting until they give you the Ukraine treatment is going to lower their testosterone?

Only thing those people respect is strength

Blind "pacifism" is the reason