Editing Overkill (term) (section)

==Nuclear weapons==
''Overkill'' is especially used to refer to a [[nuclear weapon|destructive nuclear capacity]] exceeding the amount needed to destroy an enemy.<ref name="EOP, K1">http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overkill>.</ref>

The term is attested from 1946<ref name="EOP, K2">"overkill." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 31 March. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/overkill>.</ref> and was in common use during the [[Cold War]] era, referring to the [[arms race]] between the United States and the [[Soviet Union]]. Both nations possess more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy one another many times over&nbsp;– nuclear overkill.
The term for this was "pounding the rubble" or, as military officers sometimes joked, "pounding the [[ruble]]". Overkill colloquially refers either to use of force or weapons or to satiate the desire to humiliate a rival.  In Spanish, "overkill" is referred to as "matanza excesiva".