Atomic Wars
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The Atomic Wars or Great Atom War is a fictional event in the Judge Dredd universe.
In 2070 President Robert L. Booth started World War III by starting a nuclear war which dragged in all the major superpowers.
This created the third key component in the setting for Judge Dredd (the others being the Judge System and Mega Cities). Although the Mega Cities had their own laser defence systems, the rest of the world was reduced to vast irradiated wasteland, the most famous being the Cursed Earth, from which many threats have sprung including Shojun the Warlord (from the radlands of Ji in Eastern Asia).
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[edit] The road to war
During the mid 21st century America suffered a horrific crime problem. Powerful gangs rampaged through the new Mega Cities, able to intimidate juries and until they became virtually immune to prosecution. In 2031 this lead to the formation of the street judges and a slow change over to the instant Justice which is such a feature of the Dredd strip. However at the same time America was becoming increasing xenophobic, and in 2060 elected a president on an "anti-rest of the world" platform. In 2069 his vice president Robert Booth was elected president and quickly began provoking everybody else on the planet. His actions were to lead rapidly to the worst holocaust in history.
[edit] The War
The Atomic Wars began in 2070 when (the possibly psychotic) President Booth ordered the US Army to occupy various key industral points around the world. Following this mass protests were recieved from the Mega Cities worldwide. Booth issued an ultimatum: get off our backs or we nuke you all (at this point the Judges now knew Booth was insane). After the ultimatum expired on 12 June 2070, Booth launched a massive number of nuclear weapons. In response the rest of the world fired on America. With a few exceptions (Erie, Baltimore, San Diego Quad, known so far) missile defence lasers kept the bombs away from the mega cities but the heart of the country was devastated.
By the time it was over, the world was in ruins and the people called on the judges to take power and remove the President. The Judges marched on the White House and arrested Booth. He was tried before a court of Judges and sentenced to 100 years in suspended animation.
In the aftermath most of the survivors in the devastated heart of America moved to the Mega Cities. However the robotic armies remained loyal to the President, precipitating a civil war. The judges eventually defeated them but not before it cost 100,000 lives.
[edit] Aftermath
In the aftermath democracy was abolished and the Judges gained full polictical control. Over the next two decades the USA gradually changed into the three independent sucessor states that are present in the Judge Dredd comics: Mega-City One, Mega-City Two and Texas City.
[edit] Role of Joe Dredd
During the war, then Cadet Dredd briefly served as a full judge during the worst of the nuclear holocaust, maintaining law and order on the streets. The current epic "Origins" is largely made up of his memories of the war and the time leading to it.
[edit] Combatants
The war largely consisted of the USA verses everybody else. Brit-Cit was about the only country not to condem the initial assaults but neither do they seem to come to America's aid.
[edit] See also
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