[Cardeck1]

A nuclear war would end us all. There are no winners in this scenario. If you think a country would stand a chance, you clearly do not know the nuclear capabilities of today. One thing I hate though is the "we are invincible, nr.1 etc" attitude of some americans on vice.com. I don't understand why they keep going with that mentality. It's ridiculous...

[EpicEng]

Idiots exist in every culture and creed, US citizens are no exception.

[memracom]

No, a nuclear war would only eliminate the world's major cities, and make a big dent in technological civilization. But the impact on various regions would depend on how much they are dependent on technological civilization. In the USA one could easily imagine that food production would stop without gasoline/diesel and electricity. Agriculture is too mechanized and there are no longer very many family farmers and precious few peasants.

But in Russia, things are different. Hundreds of thousands of people still live a subsistence lifestyle with minimal access to technology. There are many people who have gone off into the woods somewhere actively escaping civilization, and most of these people are still peasants, in other words they still have the skills and capabilities to survive on their own even in the harsh climate of Russia.

China is too dependent on large river valleys where the big cities are located, but at least some of the agricultural land is far enough away from cities that people would survive, and they too are close to peasant levels of subsistence lifestyle.

So a nuclear war would destroy the United States, but Russia as a state would be back within one generation. Similarly China would be back. Both of them would be smaller and less powerful measured by today's standards, but they are better positioned to survive a nuclear war than the USA.

The key factor that makes a difference is that the USA has destroyed its indigenous peoples, but in Russia and China, the indigenous peoples are in charge.