Posted on 04/29/2006 5:02:09 PM PDT by wagglebee
>>We were both prepared to wage "proxy" wars, but we never wanted direct engagement.<<
It is ironic how the atomic bomb prevents large scale wars.
North Korea is "rational" when compared to the likes of al Qaida.
Iran doesn't have anything weaponized yet, because the WILL use them the minute they do. And I think that Israel will probably take out all of Iran's nuclear capabilities in the near future.
Pakistan has nukes, but I have a feeling that we have more control over them than even they realize. Plus Pakistan is very interested in the United States keeping a BILLION Indians and a BILLION PLUS Chinese from overwhelming them.
But that only works when the opposing sides are both operating from a position of at least basic reason.
those people were afraid of retaliation.....these are insane and would love to die for the cause....Not good
Hopefully he had an editor for his boook; he could have used one for this piece. For instance, he states that the nukes in his scenario blow up while being handled by customs agents, but two of the nukes are in Vegas and Chicago - huh?
And he states that this disaster exceeds Pearl Harbor and September 11 by a "millionfold". In the case of September 11, this means it would kill - cue Dr. Evil voice - three BILLION people. Doubt it.
Scary scenario, but the man needs an editor.
Oh crap, those -are- excerpts from the book. Wow. Like I said, the man needs an editor.
However, if you "edit" and change the word to "thousandfold," it becomes THREE MILLION PEOPL (a figure which is not unrealistic for NYC, LA or Chicago) and that is a catastrophe beyond anything we have ever experienced.
I guess its like the death penalty having zero effect on a serial killer...
PING
Considering the history of the Islamic terrorists,
we find that in the case of the WTC the failure of
the first attempt only drove them to come up with a
better plan.
I think that they would attack Washington DC if they could get their hands on a nuke, they failed on their first attack
and they will have to succeed to live up to their image.
The Iranians already have missiles capable of carrying
a nuclear warhead and would only need a range of less
than 500 miles if launched from the hold of a freighter or
container ship.
Agreed. My point was this: if someone has something worthwhile to say, it's a good idea to take the time and effort to say it well. Writing loses a lot of power when done shabbily.
Unfortunately, I think this scenario might be the only thing that would cause the "grow at any cost" crowd in Washington to seal the borders and (gasp) really start checking social security numbers. And even then, it would be a big maybe.
They're not building all their weapons and preparing their forces for defense, I'll bet. And since they apparently have greater capabilities since the Clinton administration sold and gave and allowed our superior technology to be stolen by Beijing, my thinking, for what it's worth, is that they will eventually attack the US–when they think they're strong enough and we're unsuspecting enough.
What difference would it make to them if they lost half their population, or three-fourths of their people in a retaliatory strike by the US?
What they'd gain, of course, is the undying dream of Communists: world domination. And if we were out of the way, who would challenge that claim? (Don't bet on Europe.)
But we'd never believe they'd do such a thing, and even if we saw incoming, we might not be able to say definitively China fired them, if they were off the coasts of the US in the new subs they're building, cloaked, no doubt, in the stealth technology our Navy uses, which I believe they already have.
The real irony of such a scenario is that we're helping pay for China's growing might with a balance of trade that is beyond comprehension.
For more stuff on EMP, see this page in FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?SX=44540f4aceb3ddaa4a3a369b5d9f327e88599d46;m=any;o=score;ok=Search;q=deep;s=emp;t=-1
This really is scary stuff.
So this guy wants the government to visually inspect the contents of every container that comes into the United States. How? By opening each one and taking everything out of them, then opening each crate to see if it has lead shielding, then scanning everything with a Geiger Counter?
While they're doing that, the terrorists are able to get several atom bombs, even though there are only a dozen sources for them in the world. Atom bombs are not cheap. They are not easy to get. So if you can get one, you have extensive resources, financial and human.
While they're obtaining the atom bombs, somebody tells them that the best way to explode one is an air burst, not a ground burst. Maybe they even read the old Civil Defense publications that review this.
They rent a few Gulfstreams, fly them over the targets, and detonate the bombs.
Once the bombs are in the air, no inspection can stop them. The only way to fight is to control the bombs so they can't get one. If they do get one, fear will not help. Neither will anger at FEMA.
Inspecting cargo won't do anything to help. The only thing to do about this is to control the supply.
It should be a requirement for anyone who ever uses pictures of Hiroshima to illustrate "what a nuclear attack would look like" to explain that most structures in Hiroshima were built largely of wood and rice paper.
Better give me all your money for safekeeping. You're too trusting.
I think the best hope for the situation with the Chicoms is the fact that since they have embraced the basics of capitalism the way they have, that the Chinese people will begin to understand that communism doesn't actually work. With their newfound wealth, their leaders may eventually realize that they don't need totalitarianism to succeed, nor do they need to wage war with America. I think that in the near future, there will be another Tiennamen Square and this time the Chicoms won't have the will to slaughter so many innocents while the entire world watches.
...and of course, the guys with the nuke are going to be good, law-abiding little boys and stop at the checkpoint so they can get caught. Right. Let's be honest: I don't think the legitimate guys are going to be all that happy about spending time, money and fuel to divert for inspection--even if they have more than three ports, which I strongly suspect they'd need to make this work. The nutters are just going to ignore the process entirely.
This needs a little work like New Orleans needs a little work. (Speaking of which, the big problem in New Orleans wasn't that FEMA wasn't ready, but that the local guys clearly weren't ready for something they reasonably should have been.)
Of course the 200,000+ people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (nearly half the combined population of the two cities) were made up of the same skin and bones that we are.
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