U.S. fears bin Laden got nuclear help

For the sake of argument, let's say ashola bin laden does have a nuclear device. And let's say that somehow he has managed to smuggle it into a major US city. And let's say it went off.

Okay, so here we sit. We're driving along listening to our radio station of choice, and have our program interrupted by a voice telling us that a nuclear device has been detonated in a major US city. What happens in the minutes and hours that follows?

My opinion:

Best case scenario:

Everybody says several explicatives upon hearing this, and continue on as rational human beings, and stay calm. Possibly we alter whatever plans we had and pull our cars off the road to listen, or prehaps we drive to a friend or family member's house for company.

Worst case scenario:

A complete breakdown in civil order. The rule of the day becomes 'every man for himself' as riots break out, especially around food stores and gun stores. Only the very lucky ones are able to sucesfully drive out of the city without getting involved in an automobiele accident, or having their car stolen.

I can't say for sure that either of these extremes would be what would really happen. If it were just one bomb, I'd say the calmer scenario would play out. If reports came out that a second city also got hit, I could see the panic quickly setting in.

What does everybody here realistically think would happen?

I'd be far more concerned about a surreptitious anthrax attack on NYC. Once it became obvious that a release had taken place, as a few people came down with it at the same time, you'd have four million people expecting to die unless they got on antibiotics within 24 hours. What do you think that would do to the civil order?

Analysts say bin Laden also might be able to build a "dirty bomb" that wouldn't cause a nuclear explosion but could spread enough radioactivity to kill thousands in an urban environment.

Much talk about the dirty bomb.
Such a bomb would have to be transported in an enormously heavy lead suitcase,
I don't think it easily could be taken across the Mexican border.

As far as suitcase nukes are concerned, they require constant maintenance.
Wouldn't be so easy to transport one of those thousands of miles either.

What does everybody here realistically think would happen?

Martial law. Round-up of everyone who looks even vaguely middle eastern with much brutality and many deaths. Everyone who can move out of a city, moves out. Economic chaos. Hyperinflation.

Many dead Republicans. Many more dead Democrats. Bill Clinton beaten to death by a mob.

And, at long last, Pat Buchanan's much ridiculed immigration policy.

Martial law. Round-up of everyone who looks even vaguely middle eastern with much brutality and many deaths.

I know that if I had the mis-fortune to look middle-eastern, I'd have me and my family living way out in the country right now. Mis-fortune not in a racist sense, but in a sense of guilt by association.

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