Defiant Pakistan threatens to use nuke

Yahoo News India ^ | 05.30.02 | Press Trust of India

[cake_crumb]

"I must have hurricane season my mind or something to have called him Mansoon. lol!"

LOL! Don't feel bad...it took me WEEKS before I could get his name right. I enjoy his interviews too...as long as he's allowed to speak. The left accuses him of tinfoil hat sensationalism, but I've always gotten the impression, from his dry way of speaking, that this guy knows what he's talking about. The world needs to listen more closely to him.

[Darth Sidious]

Yeah, I know. Haven't seen that flick since '88 but remembered Chuck ranting about "the cobalt bomb" :-)

[Darth Sidious]

And I used to know what cobalt encasement would mean in an exchange, but have since lapsed in that. Something about keeping the fallout "viable" for longer periods of time, isn't it?

[Paul C. Jesup]

It makes the area where the nuke was used and where the fallout happens, much more radioactive.

[Cicero5]

I don't think it will result in the end of the world. I do think that there might be some effects on our environment, particularly if the weather conditions facilitate the fallout spread.

Another aspect of this is that it lowers the bar (yet again) on what it is acceptable for people to do to each other. Pakistan drops it, India sends one back...maybe a few other cities get hit. The probability of the further use of nuclear weapons becomes greater after this incident. Its sort of a Pandoras's Box that just can't end well.

The really sick thing here is that terrorist organizations are instigating and provoking this situation in India and Pakistan and they seem to be getting exactly what they want.

[Snowy]

If we were to apply the US's terror alert color system to this mess, what would the color be? From the mildest threat to severe threat, if I'm not mistaken, the colors are green, blue, yellow, orange, red. I think I would put it at orange.

[Cicero5]

Only in SE Asia? Oh well thats better. And by the way which country do you think is going to get stuck with the tab for providing medical aid and clean-up? My guess is the USA.

[Paul C. Jesup]

That is a possibility.

[Walkin Man]

I say let's make a little popcorn and sit on the sidelines and see what happens.

You might just see a huge radioactive cloud of early death floating your way from the other side of the world. I know that volcano plumes have been known to reach up into the jet stream and effect the weather thousands of miles away from the eruption. Why wouldn't nuclear blasts do the same thing with radioactive particles?

[Cicero5]

Yeah, I mean if you think about it, they are saying that 12 million people COULD die from this incident. 12 million bodies? Sanitation conditions (which are already terrible in those two countries would get dramatically worse. Imagine trying to do the clean-up. It will take an unbelievably amount of resources.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I am just how they are going to convine the American People that sending U.S. troops into the rad-zones is a good idea.

[Poohbah]

Dude, we were setting off nukes INSIDE THE US for most of the 1950s, and we're still OK.

[swarthyguy]

Pakistan's strategy of nuclear blackmail is paying off. You can be sure the princes of riyadh and the mullahs of teheran are taking careful notes.

Mush's two faced double dealing strategy is the epitomy of PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.

And the concept of nuclear blackmail as a plank of foreign policy has now been enshrined and validated. Looks for its next manifestations closer to, and eventually in the US.

[rintense]

I agree. This can not happen. The ramifications are staggering just from a limited exchange. Plus it gives the Islamic fanatics more of a reason to get nukes.

[swarthyguy]

THe human cost on the subcontinent would be tragic and awesome. But the US, USSR, China and France set off HUNDREDS of atmospheric atomic tests into the 60's. Strontium in milk cows, sure. But no more than what was there in the 50's and 60's.

Also, Pakistan would have to let all its nukes fly at once. Question is what are pakistan's red line threshold in case of an indian offensive in kashmir or elsewhere?

[Poohbah]

What would happen? Pakistan destroys a few Indian cities.

The Indian Army proceeds to destroy Pakistan the old-fashioned way, and America publicly hems and haws (a la how we did with Israel recently). India saves the nukes for keeping China out of the fray.

[aristeides]

Does India have the means to deliver the nukes against China?

[Poohbah]

Enough to hit Western China. If they mount launchers on a tramp freighter, they have a poor man's Polaris system, and they can cover the only part of China that actually makes a profit (the Shanghai/Hong Kong, or "ShangKong," region).

[aristeides]

Could that be the mission of India's one aircraft carrier? I understand they're not sending it to the Pakistani coast because it is vulnerable to Pakistani air superiority.

[Poohbah]

The carrier is too easily identified--the missile ship would have to transit Malacca Strait. Better to use a rusty and anonymous freighter.