« Day By Day | Main | Latest boating tech »
May 01, 2006
Planning for the inevitable and the unimaginable
You do know that the experts say it's not a matter of if terrorists will detonate a nuke in a major population center; it's only a question as to when a mushroom cloud will soar over an American city.
The risk is real enough that the Department of Homeland Security has a handout available online explaining what a nuclear attack will be like.
Most conversations rarely go any further beyond a lot of tut-tutting about how awful it'll be afterwards.
Some practical implications -- and what you can and should do to prepare for what is coming -- can be found here.
For a gut-wrenching depiction of how it may happen -- and our appalling lack of readiness -- check this out.
Happy Monday.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 1, 2006 12:26 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
Follow my logic. Iran is determined to get nuclear weapons. Iran's leader sees his destiny to be some huge war with the West. Iran says it will use its weaponry to wipe out Israel our ally. Israel has nuclear weapons.
Add it all up and nuclear conflict WILL happen no matter how much we would like to avoid it. If nuclear conflict is inevitable, we should bite the bullet and launch an all out nuclear strike on the Iranians now before they have the ability to put their nukes on top of missiles.
Posted by: Red Stater at May 1, 2006 07:57 PM
I agree with your analysis up to the point when you call for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran.
We do need to take Iran's leader at his word when he says Iran will use its nuclear weapons against Israel and the West, and military action is inevitable. But we cannot launch a comprehensive nuclear first strike, and don't need to do so, given our conventional-weapons arsenal.
The only possible nuclear weapons system we might justifiable employ woud be the bunker busters, but it seems that the political blowback would outweigh their usefulness.
Of course, all this is predicated on Iran not getting -- and using -- nukes. When the first American city disappears in a mushroom cloud, all bets are off.
Posted by: Mike Lief at May 1, 2006 09:01 PM
I disagree with you, sir. If you go in with conventional weapons there is no way to hit every site they could be using to assemble "the bomb" at.
Once the Iranians have the know-how to build nuclear weapons and the means to build them, the genie is out of the bottle. Guess what, as of about a month ago the genie is out and dancing around.
Unlike the Russians that I was trained to fight in my army days, the Iranians have a "suicide state" mentality. The President said he had tens of thousands of suicide bombers waiting to blow themselves up in a mass jihad.
What do you do when a "Jim Jones" with a beard is the president of a country trying to build nuclear weapons and he is threatening to kill you? If you are smart you take "Jim Jones" seriously.
With nuclear weapons and missiles to launch them with, this world just isn't big enough for the US and Iran to coexist in. Between the two countries I'd rather see the Iranians die by the millions than us.
All I know is that when a man stands outside my front door and threatens to kill me and my family while he's loading his gun, I just don't see the wrong in putting a bullet right between his eyes. In my mind, the same holds true when a suicidal country is loading up with nuclear weapons and threatening to kill us and our allies. Nuke em.
Posted by: Red Stater at May 1, 2006 10:27 PM
Wow!
P.S. I never thought I would see the day where I found someone more conservative than OOAL, but I think I have.
Posted by: Thin Ice at May 2, 2006 12:30 PM