Question 12: Nukes

The problem is, if one community's got a military, then they all need a military to survive. The only way it wouldn't be necessary is if they all agreed not to raise militaries, which would be quite a rarity.

Think about all the controversy over countries having nukes. Ideally, no country should have them. But the second someone suggests that 'well then why doesn't the US get rid of all their nukes?', it's obvious that's never going to happen. We need nukes, because other countries are always going to have nukes. And why are other countries going to have nukes? Because we have nukes. It's like the whole "Give me the hostage, then I'll give you the money," "No, you give me the money, then I'll give you the hostage." No one trusts anyone.

While I'm not sure it is of the highest priority for every community, I think that it is certainly necessary to have a military in order to survive. Living in a community without a military is like living in a house without walls and a roof. You're completely exposed to whatever comes your way. Even a mediocre military is better than none at all, just for the message it implies.

Think about the identity of a community that does not harbor a military. They obviously value peace and diplomatic conflict resolution. But the identity of a community who considers military top priority sees force as a way of solving problems.

Guess who's going to win in an argument?

But even a community who has a military of ten people who wear sweatpants as their uniforms send out a more aggressive and influential message than the community with no army at all. Because at least this community is saying "We are willing to defend outselves." They might still value diplomacy over force, and they obviously do not find the military to be their top priority, but they are still telling other communities that they will fight back if they need to.

Similarly, a country with one nuke has more power than a country with none. Even though no one really wants nukes around at all, we all still know that's never going to happen, and the country with the most nukes still holds a great deal of power.