Surviving a Nuclear Attack on Washington, D.C.

National Journal ^ | June 24th 2005 | By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

[Blzbba]

"Tasking orders are sent to an Ohio class SSBN somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

Within 15 minutes 24 Trident SLBM's are headed to the Middle East.

Every Muslim city of over 100,000 people is incinerated with a MIRV warhead.

Every day for the next 5 days a similar atomic strike is launched on the survivors and the battle-assesed remnants of the Muslim world.
"



Then, on the 6th day, every single test and data show that the nuke was a ChiComm device and was probably planted by ChiComm or ex-Soviet agents, who are laughing their asses off at America's attack on Iran.

[Blzbba]

"Months before 9-11 my local newspaper printed a letter to the editor in which I suggested relocating our nations capital to the heartland for protective and political reasons. The heartland is the demographic center of our nation and would be the easiest to protect."



Tell that to the Oklahoma City victims.

[Mr. Keys]

But, since our borders are secured, and those anti-Americans who come here and hate us are just "activists", and all Americans take this war seriously, this can't happen, right?

[Lexington Green]

''Thank you so much...I work in downtown DC too.''

Then you surely know you're a target... and will not be surprised when you smell smoke.... like living in a highrise on the San Andreas.

Nothing personal. Hope you survive.

[MadJack]

The steady stream of hot air and BS emanating from Capitol Hill also serves as a protective dome that shields DC from reality and nuclear attack.

[Rummyfan]

Chilling. I think it will happen somewhere in the next ten years. Maybe not Washington, D.C, and maybe not even here in the continental U.S., but somewhere. Either that or the jihadis resort to chemical / biological weapons.

[ExSoldier]

I would agree but someone cancelled our development of neutron warheads.

That would be Peanut Jimmy Carter? Nevertheless, according to my father in law (a WWII hero--Navy Cross & Silver Star-- with a Ph.d in nuclear physics and the retired manager of a nuclear power plant) it's pretty easy to get them ginned up. He says we actually had them but they were dismantled. He suspects that they were reinstituted by somebody and await use....it would be stupid not to, and Ronald Reagan wasn't stupid.

[null and void]

Ammo, never can have enough of it...

...a time when lead is worth more than gold...

[Rummyfan]

And women and minorities will be hardest hit!

[DTogo]

The loss of D.C.... and this would be bad because...?

[Hoodlum91]

I'll be one of the first 15,000 unfortunately.

[NavyCanDo]

That's a great read, thanks for posting. I live 14 miles from Seattle, and this story gives me some comfort in knowing the family would most likely survive if Seattle was a target, as long as we take precautions against fallout

Then again - why would terrorist want to take out anti-war central?

[Constitution Day]

Sounds cheery. I'll check it out later.

[conservativewasp]

This is why I live 40 miles West of DC, and don't work downtown.

[11Bush]

Then, on the 6th day, every single test and data show that the nuke was a ChiComm device and was probably planted by ChiComm or ex-Soviet agents, who are laughing their asses off at America's attack on Iran.

So? Not like there is not enough to go around. We even have enough for the french problem.

[ExSoldier]

I was stationed at Fort Lewis. I really miss Seattle, but I was there before it got ruined by the granola crowd from Kalifornia. I wonder: Would a nuke detonation at ground level set off Mount Rainier? There's a worry for you.

[11Bush]

No need to stock up on anything but ammo. After all, I can take what I need from my liberal, unarmed, neighbors.

[cvq3842]

A few other random thoughts, in addition to the ones people have already posted:

I think others have speculated that the REAL doomsday scenario would be several explosions, in several large cities, on the same day. 9/11 was a coordinated attack on NY and DC. Something like that could happen. Which changes the scenario a great deal. Also, I know an electromagnetic pulse could also damage any solid state circuits, including battery-operated radios, but that would probably not be an issue in this size ground burst. I could be wrong.

I also remember hearing that somehow the US government has some kind of "sniffer" capability that would be able to trace the radiological "fingerprint" of the bomb - in other words, we could probably find out what uranium was used, and have a good idea who used it, right away. Not much comfort, obviously, if a bomb has already gone off. I'd like to believe that any country able to create such a devise would also know of this possibility of tracing, and that that would be some kind of a deterrent. But that's very wishful thinking - I don't know our capabilities, or how much an enemy would care. Certainly another crew of 9/11 crazies wouldn't care. But they have to get the uranium from somewhere.

It is terribly ironic to think that in a sense we might have more to fear from one bomb in the hands of a fanatic than we did from thousands of Soviet missiles. Certainly not because the Soviet leaders were "good people," of course - but they were RATIONAL and did not want to be annihilated. Even though they had the capability to launch a massive attack.

There are plenty of suicidal terrorists out there. So far the ONLY think that has stopped them from doing this is their inability to do so.

If they could have done it already, they would have.

Among other things, it's a reminder that a lot of people in our government, military, etc. are working harder than we realize to keep things right.

[xsmommy]

hey guess what? some freepers live and work there.

[usurper]

I still think it is stupid to house all of our national agencies headquarters in one small city.

You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Everybody in DC knows this, but the politicians want to be able to walk over to speak to department heads or summon them on a moments notice.