When a Superpower Barks but Doesn't Bite

Whoever coined the phrase "The more things change, the more they stay the same," couldn't have been thinking of modern warfare. When it comes to 21st Century military might, it seems, the more powerful a country gets, the less fear other countries have of it.

That two bombs can bring an end to a long war that had already killed 70 million people, may be a little hard to imagine. But when the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs (nicknamed "Little Boy" and "Fat Man") on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), Japan surrendered in only 6 days. What's more, the shock of the bombs generated such strong public sentiments against nuclear weapons that Japan eventually adopted the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles;" The tenets state, "Japan shall neither possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor shall it permit their introduction into Japanese territory."

It's unfortunate that it took an additional 100,000 deaths to end World War II. But with tens of millions already dead, it would not be an exaggeration to say that millions more might have died otherwise.

At that time, the U.S. had no nuclear stockpiles. We had tested our first nuclear weapon less than a month before the Japan bombings. The bombs were small, by today's standards; Hiroshima's approximately 15 kt, Nagasaki's approximately 21 kt. (1 kt [kiloton] has the explosive power of a thousand tons of dynamite.)

The U.S currently has over 9,000 nuclear warheads, of which almost 6,000 are fully active. Of these, over 400 are ballistic missiles with 475 kt warheads, each. To put it simply, we have enough explosive power to wipe every country off the face of the earth several times over.

There's little question that, weaponry wise, we've grown by leaps and bounds. But has our ability to fend off attacks or end a conflict with a strategic attack grown in the same proportion? That's questionable.

On October 7, 2001, American and British forces began aerial bombings of Afghanistan, named "Operation Enduring Freedom," targeting the Taliban and al-Qaeda. This was in response to, and almost a month after, 9/11.