[JAKraig]

I am not a good typist but I had to respond to this one, forgive the mistakes please, my blood is boiling thinking about this.

I'm an ex-nuclear submarine sailor. Nuclear hazards are just like any other hazard, they can be dealt with.

The real problems are in the aftermath. Local governments won't fail but they will strain. Prices for all foods will skyrocket. Building material prices will go through the roof. None of that will be nearly as life changing as the effect that that one explosion will have on the electorate.

We will all suddenly realize how vulnerable we are to this kind of an attack. We will all have friends or relatives who were killed in the initial explosion or died later from radiation poisoning. We will be an angry country. We will have elections in a short time after the bomb because many of our national elected officials will have been vaporized or succumb to radiation sickness.

When the new elections happen we won't be thinking about social security, we won't be thinking about minimum wages we will have one thing on our collective minds. Kill the people who did this to us, keep them from ever being able to do it again.

You may think that the idea of nuking Muslim cities of 100,000 or more might sound far fetched but I would imagine that the anger in the country will allow nothing else. Can you imagine electing someone who wants to negotiate with the terrorists who would do such a thing. Can you imagine watching someone die for a month who knew they were doomed. What if were your parents and brother and sister, how much negotiating are you going to want to do? Even good Christians have their limits. Some will not call it revenge but protection.

If you think that the Tridents won't work you are un-informed. They will do exactly as they are designed. The Arab world does not have near the support structure that we have here. There will be a much higher kill ratio there than here. There will be 10's or perhaps 100's of times more fallout there and it will kill a lot more than the initial blast. There won't be a few hundred thousand deaths but perhaps a few hundred million deaths. The Arab world will indeed return to the stone age. After one generation there will be little of educated Arabs left in the world outside of the west. What education there is will be run by Americans and there will be no Islam taught, it will be outlawed. There will be no more money to fund terrorism from oil, the US will own the oilfields and rule what is left of the Middle East. Many western Arabs will forsake Islam to protect their lives.

A bomb in DC will scar DC for a long time but it will be the death of Islam.

If the Arab world knew that we had no choice other than the kind of massive retaliation that will follow a nuclear strike on our soil they might do all they can to stop the terrorist before they commit mass suicide.

[null and void]

Hmmm. might be an acceptable trade. D.C. for the elimination of Islam?

[JZelle]

I think Hillary would survive a nuclear blast.

[kevao]

The UN Security Council would never give us a resolution to bomb the ME back into the stone age (not that the ME is all that far removed from the stone age to begin with).

Seriously, though, while I share your enthusiasm, I have far less faith in the American sheeple's resolve, even in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

[KingofQue]

Let's do it now and forget the DC part.

[Don Joe]

If the Arab world knew that we had no choice other than the kind of massive retaliation that will follow a nuclear strike on our soil they might do all they can to stop the terrorist before they commit mass suicide.

Don't bet on it.

These are the kind of people who weren't impressed with a $25 million reward for the capture of OBL -- but, would have been wowed by an offer of 25 goats -- something of real, tangible "value" that they could wrap their minds around.

We are dealing with denizens of the dark ages -- literally. Unfortunately, they are armed with munitions of the modern era.

When the USA and the USSR armed to the teeth, it was with the idea of maintaining a standoff -- a stalemate. A deterrent.

The efficacy of that deterrent depended upon the sanity of both parties to the standoff.

The Russians, for all their faults, were sane. They didn't want to incinerate their posterity.

Contrast that to the recent bust in the U.K., in which a "nice" Muslim family (their neighbors waxed eloquent about what nice folks they were), who planned on using their baby as a vehicle for blowing themselves up in an airliner.

Totally different value system. Totally insane value system.

How do you invoke a deterrent against a foe who WANTS to die?

Simple answer: You don't.

I'll stop now. I don't need a crayon to draw a picture of exactly how ugly, exactly how bleak the situation is.

Our choices are slim, and repugnant to a civilized society. Our penalty for doing nothing but wait for the "default condition" is even more brutal.

God have mercy on our civilization.

[AFreeBird]

If the Arab world knew that we had no choice other than the kind of massive retaliation that will follow a nuclear strike on our soil they might do all they can to stop the terrorist before they commit mass suicide.

I fear you may be crediting the IsamoNazi's with more intelligence than they posess.

The rest I agree with. I'd want payback. I'd want a disproportianate response on a massive scale. And prehaps a per head bounty on any remaining muzzies.

Figurativly speaking: Salt the earth for the muzzies.

[XenaLee]

And what if we knew the bomb came from elsewhere? Like, NKorea, for instance? Would we merely nuke NKorea and leave the rest of our enemies in 'peace'?

___
A bomb in DC will scar DC for a long time but it will be the death of Islam.

If the Arab world knew that we had no choice other than the kind of massive retaliation that will follow a nuclear strike on our soil they might do all they can to stop the terrorist before they commit mass suicide.