Poetry, Part Forty-nine

How many nuclear weapons and delivery systems were enough? Bombers and land-based missiles and sea-borne missiles were designated a "Triad" of nuclear weaponry in the 20th century. The analogy was to a stool with three legs. That it is more difficult to knock over such a sturdy device.

Of course, the numbers of weapons were only to ensure the complete destruction of the enemy's offensive and defensive systems. Millions of citizens of both countries, and many more around the world, were going to die in the process of accomplishing that mission. Perhaps most of the population of the world might have died in the process of reducing each other's military infrastructure and capabilities.

It would have been madness, of course, to have fought any nuclear war, even a "limited" one. Fortunately, at times, both sides tried to curb the numbers of those deadly weapons, even while calculating their ability to maintain sufficiently lethal strike forces and endure afterwards.

Arms Negotiations

From strength,
forced and finding ourselves
computing a world beyond the war.
Rather than lives improving the quality of living,
we calculate interruption,
to crush any qualitative advantage.
Leads neither nation ever overcomes now
as we stretch out and atrophy.
To finally counter those
who prefer to maim rather than deter;
who prefer to be maimed rather than deter.
To fight,
accepting the loss of a single limb.
Acceptably losing all limbs,
save one,
to fight on
and then recover.

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