[Cobra64]

Not sure where you total pro-nuke guys are coming from. Atmospheric detonation of these devices would cause nuclear fallout which would kill most of Asia, and drift over the Pacific ocean and wipe out most of America. Nice solution, huh? Read through the articles above. Again, I say, if we want to use nukes, we should use "underground testing" on the enemy "living underground in caves." The caves close up with nuclear fission fallout. Please think through what you're proposing. I'm trying.

[vannrox]

One MILLION people in Iran were killed by Saddam's Iraq. He used SMALLPOX, ANTHRAX and EBOLA. Are we going to wait until that happens here?

[vannrox]

You are wrong. Not "atmospheric" detonation, but rather "ground" detonation would cause fallout of sufficient density to warrant the concerns that you raised. War is HECK. But if you are in it, make it as harsh and quick as possible so it ends quickly...

[95Tarheel]

Actually, most of these very large devices were detonated above ground, ie "atmospheric", and we didn't all die. The islands where we detonated bombs are much closer than Afghanistan, and the Soviet test range where the largest device ever used was detonated is probably about as close as Afghanistan is to us. Regardless, the size of the explosion does not correlate all that well with the amount of radioactive fallout.