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For this reason, America must be destroyed, and al-Usuquf insists that "aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites will be worthless in the next war".

Here's a tip. If anyone wants to make a bet on the winner of the next war, take the team that has the worthless aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and spy satellites.

These chest beaters are a hoot. Let's assume, arguendo, that one of these terror groups managed to detonate a nuke in a western city. It would inaugurate the Third World War, for sure. China, Russia, Western Europe, Australia, most of Central and South America, India, Canada and the USA would align in a completely mobilized campaign that would essentially destroy Islamic regimes worldwide and occupy whole nations for generations.

Clearly in such a circumstance the wartime economy would shift the allocation of resources and imperatives. Does any serious person believe that contingency planning and response scenarios have not considered such an event? Does any serious person believe that the civilized west would be defeated by radical Islam?

It is inevitable that a rogue nation or terror group will deploy a WMD of some kind on an unsuspecting population. The thing to be feared after such an event is not that the west would be defeated by Islamic fundamentalists, but that the hysterical, revenge-driven environment would invariably lead to the emergence of an ultra-powerful central government (or leader) who would be given carte blanche to do whatever. How you put that kind of an animal back in its cage after the elimination of the external threat is very troubling.

Let's assume, arguendo, that one of these terror groups managed to detonate a nuke in a western city. It would inaugurate the Third World War, for sure. China, Russia, Western Europe, Australia, most of Central and South America, India, Canada and the USA would align in a completely mobilized campaign that would essentially destroy Islamic regimes worldwide and occupy whole nations for generations.

If you think that, you're fooling yourself.

Sorry, but it's the truth.

B-chan

It would not take a detonation in a city to wreck the economy. In fact, the US does not even have to be physically attacked to bring the economy into a spiral. Just think what a single nuclear burst would do at a low orbit (400 mile) altitude. Very few of the satellites at that altitude are hardend. The nuclear debris and radioactive particles in orbit would have a devasting effect on anything launched for the next 10-15 years.

No individual country would be attacked, as all low orbit satellites would be affected. No one would be killed, because the blast would be at such a high altitude. But every country in the world that uses technology would be affected.

The thing to be feared after such an event is not that the west would be defeated by Islamic fundamentalists, but that the hysterical, revenge-driven environment would invariably lead to the emergence of an ultra-powerful central government (or leader) who would be given carte blanche to do whatever.

bingo. I was thinking the same thing. Global catastrophes of whatever form, nuclear terrorism, meteor, etc raise this sort of arlan spector.