Weapons are expensive! The B-2 Stealth Bomber is being used in the current conflict for the first time. Each bomber costs approximately $2.1 billion. The Associated Press reported that if one of these planes were actually shot down "...it would be seen as a full blown calamity for the military: the pair of B-2 Bombers used Wednesday cost almost as much as a Navy aircraft carrier." For those of you who may be interested in purchasing one of these babies, contact the Northrop Grumman Corporation. Who needs a concealed weapons permit when you have one of these parked in your back yard?
President Clinton mentioned when he addressed the nation that "...we have an interest in avoiding an even...costlier war..." Seriously now folks. When has Clinton ever been concerned about saving you money? Spending money takes people's minds off the fact his character ratings are in the toilet. He is now concerned with how much I will cost (monetarily) if we wait until later to bomb. Spending money on the military means more government jobs and more government contracts handed out to the private sector, which means more popularity for the President. Saving the taxpayer money is the last thing on his mind.
The Cold War, some thought, was a good example of what is known as Mutually Assured Destruction(MAD). MAD is also a concept that is used in what is known in the social sciences as game theory. MAD is centered on the theory that while the two superpowers, the US and the former Soviet Union, continued to stockpile weapons on a massive scale, these moves assured that neither would be very likely to start a war. The nuclear weapons that these two countries possessed were so huge they guaranteed not only the destruction of the country attacked but the destruction of the country who dared to launch the nuclear attack. It was this Mutually Assured Destruction that kept either side from escalating the Cold War into a "hot" war.
For example, if the Soviets had sent a few tank divisions into West Germany, let us assume that there was a 7.5% probability that the US would launch an all-out nuclear strike. This deterred the Soviets from ever attacking. On the other hand, if the US had pushed the button, let us assume that the retaliation by the Soviets had a 14% probability of occurring. This would limit the likelihood of the US pushing the button in the first place. The rationale was that if both super powers had huge arsenals of nukes, neither would launch for fear of all-out Armageddon.
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