Andreas,
There was another way that you could have responded to this if you wanted. Something like:
"Reed, I didn't follow the Bertrand Russell or RAND corporation references.
Could you flesh out these statements so I can better understand what you're
trying to say before I respond."
Just a thought.
I highly recommend William Poundstone's _The Prisoner's Dilemma_ to find out more about these things. A book everyone here should be familiar with.
Russell and Von Neumann -- two of the best, most logical minds of this
century -- both thought that the United States should preemptively drop
hydrogen bombs on the Soviet Union before they could develop the bomb
themselves (this was in the 1950's).
[Bill Roh]
I am a bit of a fanatic of Russell, and I didn't know that he ever favored
using the bomb as you are saying, I am sure however that he was very
anti-bomb pro-peace later in his carreer. If you by chance have a source for
Russell's pro nuke stance, I would be interested in seeing it.