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The Implausibility of Nuclear Terrorism (idiot column of the century + triple barf alert)
Creators Syndicate ^ | 2/12/08 | Steve Chapman

Posted on 02/12/2008 12:54:31 PM PST by meandog

Death tugs at my ear and says, 'Live, I am coming.'" Were Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. alive today, he might ascribe that line not to death but to nuclear terrorism.

Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have had to live with the knowledge that the next time the terrorists strike, it could be not with airplanes capable of killing thousands but atomic bombs capable of killing hundreds of thousands.

The prospect has created a sense of profound vulnerability. It has shaped our view of government policies aimed at combating terrorism (filtered through Jack Bauer). It helped mobilize support for the Iraq war.

Why are we worried? Bomb designs can be found on the Internet. Fissile material may be smuggled out of Russia. Iran, a longtime sponsor of terrorist groups, is trying to acquire nuclear weapons. A layperson may figure it's only a matter of time before the unimaginable comes to pass. Harvard's Graham Allison, in his book "Nuclear Terrorism," concludes, "On the current course, nuclear terrorism is inevitable

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: alternateuniverse; denial; kooks; nuke; ostriches; ostrichuniverse; stevechapman
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Where do they dig these fools up...not only is he's dead wrong about "radioactive scrap metal" from old warheads (Tridium leak) he's an idiot for not realizing that nuclear proliferation (at least the transfer of technical information) has probably already occurred within the Pakistani army to terrorists. It does not take too much imagination and technical expertise to produce a Hiroshima equivalent bomb that could be smuggled in on a ocean freighter to an American port and exploded.
1 posted on 02/12/2008 12:54:41 PM PST by meandog
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To: meandog
tridium=tritium Sheeeech!
2 posted on 02/12/2008 12:59:10 PM PST by meandog (Please pray for future President McCain--day minus 326 and counting! Stay home and get Hillary!)
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To: meandog

More than once since he came back from the Middle East, General Franks has said he thinks it’s only a matter of time. Just identifying one dissenting view.


3 posted on 02/12/2008 12:59:16 PM PST by squidly
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To: meandog

Chapman is a libertarian moron who takes these types of positions sometimes, I think, to stir things up. It’s hard to believe any rational American could write this drivel, but that’s what we get from the Chicago Tribune. Here’s to hoping Sam Zell will clean house and fire the entire editorial board. They are incompetent.


4 posted on 02/12/2008 12:59:43 PM PST by astounded (The Democrat Party is a Clear and Present Danger to the USA)
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To: meandog

.... and the entire transfer of weapons technology
from US -> Turkey -> Pakistan was directed by Xlinton
and then covered up by ......... Sandy Burger.


5 posted on 02/12/2008 1:00:27 PM PST by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: meandog
From the article... After Sept. 11, 2001, we all thought more attacks were a certainty. Yet al-Qaida and its ideological kin have proved unable to mount a second strike.

I find it entertaining that so many of these folks willfully ignore the planned attacks that have been foiled post 9/11. Then again, maybe it's not so entertaining.

6 posted on 02/12/2008 1:01:18 PM PST by squidly
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To: meandog

Yup - it is extremely foolish not to mention ignorant.

“Yet al-Qaida and its ideological kin have proved unable to mount a second strike.”

That’s because they plan attacks decades apart, allowing for time to be on the run as they have been, preparations, and waiting for us to elect a less defense oriented President.


7 posted on 02/12/2008 1:02:22 PM PST by rjp2005 (Lord have mercy on us)
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To: meandog

This is how Liberals think.

“It won’t happen, because it can’t.”

or

“It might happen so we should make a law to prevent it.”

Those two extremes are precisely how they keep everyone out of balance.

They ought to be thinking, “It might happen, because someone can make it happen and thus we should work to prevent the bad guys from making it happen” — but not make LAWS to prevent it, rather, send the people we have doing the job out to continue to the do the job. And hiring better analysts and hanging on to the military people we have (and recruiting new ones).


8 posted on 02/12/2008 1:03:52 PM PST by Rick.Donaldson (http://www.transasianaxis.com - Visit for lastest on DPRK/Russia/China/Etc --Fred Thompson for Prez.)
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To: rjp2005

And 9-11 was the #2, with 1993 being the #1.


9 posted on 02/12/2008 1:03:52 PM PST by rjp2005 (Lord have mercy on us)
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To: astounded
Chapman is a libertarian moron

You're half right.

L

10 posted on 02/12/2008 1:04:34 PM PST by Lurker (Pimping my blog: http://lurkerslair-lurker.blogspot.com/)
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To: Lurker

But that means I’m half wrong. I believe he professed to be a libertarian in print once upon a time, so I don’t think that’s the half-wrong. However, his writings clearly demonstrate he’s a moron, so I’m stuck. Any help would be appreciated in resolving this quandary...


11 posted on 02/12/2008 1:08:27 PM PST by astounded (The Democrat Party is a Clear and Present Danger to the USA)
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To: meandog

As I have posted before, editors also need to ensure that columnists and reporters don’t publish articles that tend to embarass the authors or the organization.

The editor failed to protect the franchise. This is a college newspaper level column. Embarassing.


12 posted on 02/12/2008 1:11:17 PM PST by TexanToTheCore (If it ain't Rugby or Bullriding, it's for girls.........................................)
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To: astounded
I believe he professed to be a libertarian in print once upon a time

Bill Maher professed the same thing. Well he can call himself a libertarian the same way he can call himself a Guernsey cow.

That doesn't mean you can milk him.

Chapman couldn't articulate a Libertarian principle if you pointed a Chicago banned handgun at him. (Something he's totally in favor of btw. Not exactly a Libertarian position, that.)

L

13 posted on 02/12/2008 1:14:56 PM PST by Lurker (Pimping my blog: http://lurkerslair-lurker.blogspot.com/)
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To: meandog

Will read this later. Thanks.


14 posted on 02/12/2008 1:16:17 PM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: astounded
Not only is he a liberal moron; he did little fact checking with the technical community who would know a thing or two about the plausibility of terrorists building nukes...it’s rather simple with the right ingredients; besides those old “radioactive scrap metal” that he arrogantly discards can make quite a dirty bomb—just as effective as the real thing over time as you don’t really need the big boom neutron effect, just the ability to poison water sources (reservoirs, aquifers, etc.) with alpha particles and pollute the rest of the environment with the beta gamma. The resulting rising rates of cancers will be alarming and overwhelm the targeted locality's (the size of the San Francisco-Oakland area) healthcare facilities.
15 posted on 02/12/2008 1:17:08 PM PST by meandog (Please pray for future President McCain--day minus 326 and counting! Stay home and get Hillary!)
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To: meandog
"But remember: After Sept. 11, 2001, we all thought more attacks were a certainty. Yet al-Qaida and its ideological kin have proved unable to mount a second strike."

And for that we give our gratitude to George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfield and our eternal gratitude to the men and women of the armed forces of the United States.

16 posted on 02/12/2008 1:19:48 PM PST by norwaypinesavage (Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is like drinking water to offset rising ocean levels)
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To: meandog
---None of this means we should stop trying to minimize the risk by securing nuclear stockpiles, monitoring terrorist communications and improving port screening. But it offers good reason to think that in this war, it appears, the worst eventuality is one that will never happen.--

--last paragraph--

17 posted on 02/12/2008 1:20:20 PM PST by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
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To: meandog

We have been under threat of imminent global nuclear annihilation since 1957. It’s too much to ask us to get excited over a handful of nukes going off here and there.


18 posted on 02/12/2008 1:23:52 PM PST by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: RightWhale

As long as we know where to send our nuclear reprisal, you are right.

Stateless nukes don’t have a return address, so we’ll just have to settle for destroying the Ummah. All of it.


19 posted on 02/12/2008 1:30:59 PM PST by agere_contra
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To: meandog

Even a fizzle yield with a simple device fueled with U235 could kill thousands. They don’t need to make complex implosion weapon with Plutonium.


20 posted on 02/12/2008 1:32:41 PM PST by jesseam (Been there and done that!)
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