Living in the UK, I had not heard that people in Hawaii were erroneously sent a text message in 2018 warning of an imminent nuclear attack. This could have made a fascinating documentary - how did people act in what they believed to be the last hours of their lives? We hear little of the emotional impact; instead, we have the predictable opinions of anti-nuclear activists, one of whom opines that nuclear weapons are used every day, even when they are not used. Er... no; in fact, the theory of deterrence is that the threat of annihilation prevents war; thus, its advocates claim, widespread nuclear capability ensures peace. Furthermore, it is implied, this unfortunate false alarm would never have happened in the nuclear-free world that would exist if only authority did not rest in the hands of white, heterosexual men. This is nonsense on stilts. I'm a pacifist myself, but it's ludicrous to suppose that the proponents of nuclear deterrence have a death wish.
The animations that accompany the eyewitness accounts are necessary given there is no video of the events, but they add little: this would have been better as a radio programme. 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' is a disputable statement, but this feeble effort does not even begin to offer an alternative.
