The wartime scenario most worrying for the UK's generals |
Are we ready for war? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers tackle a grim question that, until recently, few had thought to consider.
• Plane crashes, no medicine and mass panic – how a ‘Q-Day’ attack would unfold
• Ray Mears: This is the golden rule of preparing for war
• Not enough people want to die for Britain
• ‘Little green men’ and ghost fleets: How Russia could drag us into war before 2030
In the recent Netflix hit film A House of Dynamite, the US military and government scramble to respond to a nuclear missile heading for Chicago and, with it, the seemingly inevitable outbreak of World War Three.
Fortunately for the population of Planet Earth, the chances of a rogue intercontinental ballistic missile, origin unclear, being fired at the West is still a far-fetched scenario.
The doctrine of mutually assured destruction has remained steadfastly in place since the start of the Cold War and after it ended.
No nuclear-armed state will, it is assumed, fire a nuclear weapon at an enemy if it knows the response will be annihilation.
A more realistic scenario, and one that actively troubles senior generals and government officials,........