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But I have to say, NYers, Los Angelinos, and Second City residents have an exagerrated sense of self importance.

Nice convienetly overlooking the "and/or other major cities" part I wrote.

And how about the destruction of D.C.? What's the "chain of command" when the entire (political) chain is gone?

Look, whether the bombs are 1kt or 20kt, utter chaos would ensue. The stock market would completely collapse (in fact Wall St. could even cease to exist), and frightened Americans would be yanking their investments left and right. I think you're seriously underestimating that damage that would be done. Yeah, we'd survive, but we'd be a whole different place.

Relax, Kissenger. I explicitly mentioned 'and/or other mahjor cities' earlier in the post. I didn't overlook it, conveniently or otherwise.

Maybe the NYers, Los Angelinos, and 2nd City Residents aren't the only ones with exaggerated senses of self importance!

DC? I just explained the kind of nuclear weapons they have the best chance of having (and at best, even if they are operational, are low in number - maybe 6-12 tops from what I have heard) aren't terribly potent, closer to the .1kt to 1.0kt yeild.

In any case, they need regular maintenence, which I don't think AQ has the know-how. They are probably better suited as 90kg doorstops rather than fearsome WMD.

And what's with the 20kt thing? Where did you get that? I don't think anybody thinks they have even a chance at getting one bomb of that yeild, let alone several.

One or two or three of these smaller nuke bombs (.1-1kt) wouldn't destroy DC, and probably not enough to destroy the Pentagon (which is designed to withstand a nuclear blast, in case you were wondering).

Our government is centrally located in DC, but even in a worst case scenario, a chain of command will exist.

Utter collapse? Nope. Severe panic? Yep. Wall Street? Most trading is done electonically. It wouldn't be a picnic, but your original analysis was heavy on hysterics and short on facts.

Panic would ensue, sure, but I am confident order would be restored relatively quickly (days in some cases, weeks in others). The Union is not simply NY, LA, Chicago, DC, and a handful of other cities.

I'm not saying the process would be easy - I am saying that your position is based more on fiction and hysterics than reality.

In any case, even after a limited nuclear hit like that (say 6 small nukes in 4 cities), I still don't see how the USA's response would be to nuke Mecca, Medina, and other mid east cities.