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Do you really think he's going to stop doing that whether or not these weapons are built? It's pretty much all he's got.

Nobody's going to nuke anyone, and I'll take this to my grave. The only worry would be extreme religious cultists getting nukes, like al queda or taliban who would actually use it, but they'll never be even close to getting them or I'll eat my shoe. Real powers will never let them.

All of the people that control the nukes are at the topmost rungs of society, with families and the most luxuries. They have the most to lose, no matter what.

Also, nobody has a big red button. There's a massive chain of command that has to go along with it. The chain of command is not some 19yr old army grunt following orders. I'm talking the high up chain of command, many people, that have to go along with a launch for it to happen. These people are also high up, and know that their luxurious way of life, and families, are over forever in a nuclear war. They don't want to survive in a bunker for a few years then die of starvation or cancer slowly.

I dont know for sure obviously, but I feel that the people who control the nukes are the ones with the most to lose. I have zero fear of a true nuclear war. Zero.

I guess, but the U.S. also supposedly has 3708 warheads, with another 1336 "retired" warheads which are supposedly just sitting around waiting to be disarmed, which sounds like code to me for "we can still use these if we feel like it."

https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nuclear-weapons-who-has-what-glance

Maybe if we're going to start updating our nukes, we can actually start dismantling the old ones?

You have a nuclear triad. Even if all the silos went kaput (extremely unlikely) and everyone knew it there are still nuclear subs somewhere in the world carrying nukes. The truth is you only need to have enough functional nuclear weapons to make any attack a very bad day for everyone. That number isn’t that high given a nuclear weapons destructive capacity.

You know what, there’s a small chance they would if they knew. But let’s say the Pentagon stopped all silos and kept it hush. Russia and China would never know whether they stopped or where remaining ones would be.

If nothing else*, they would notice the changes in budgeting. The amount of money we spend every year on maintiaing the nuclear arsenal is staggering. if that suddenly paired back or chanced it'd be basically public information. Maybe not specifics, but there's enough detail to know what's being spent on what.

MAD only works if the other party thinks you can, and you will. Also, once you start using MAD it's almost impossible to stop.

You know what, there's a small chance they would if they knew. But let's say the Pentagon stopped all silos and kept it hush. Russia and China would never know whether they stopped or where remaining ones would be.

Under the terms of the New START treaty, the US and Russia conduct inspections of each other's nuclear weapons programs:

The treaty provides for 18 on-site inspections per year for U.S. and Russian inspection teams

Both countries are intimately familiar the other's weapons systems.