I'm not so sure.
Who would we nuke, the Saudis, the Afghans,Iraq, the PLO?
Unless a country attacks us with WMD we are pretty much fresh out of targets to strike back at.
Thats why the Feds are desperate to find a domestic perp for the Anthrax attacks, we have been attacked with bioweapons by foreign terrorists and have had to let it slide.
If a nuke was slipped into New York harbor tomorrow in a shipping container and detonated, killing 200,000 people, who would we nuke in response if no nation took responsibility?.
Thats the main reason the ragheads must never be allowed to get the bomb.
But there is a catch.
The catch is that it seems even when there is overwhelming public desire for something there will always be a cadre of elite politicians who are against the public will (at times it is a good thing by the way in their defence). And this 'cabal' would obviously be liberal, and against an all out US nuclear strike at all and sundry nations that are Islamic in any respect. And due to them the strike would never happen.
And at the same time (looking at the Republicans) there would be many calling for the 'football' and ICBM/SLBM hits against Islamic nations, but i really doubt there would be enough calls for a strike! The thing is that unlike the average guy asking for strikes at all Islamic nations these guys have to have a cause and rationale for a strike! Obviously the 'cause and rationale' for a nuclear strike would be the millions of American casualties from the terrorist nuclear strike .....but the problem would be against whom? If they had a real target (eg let us say Algerian terrorists had recieved nuclear material from Pakistan and had thus acted) what would happen is that both Pakistan and Algeria would be on the receiving end of several Trident SLBMs before you can say 'nuke strike!'
But the problem here is that if such an act happened you would be sure the host nation would do its best to get rid of any and all evidence since it knows the consequences of being painted by the US (immediate annihilation). Chances are they would do this through a proxy ....and this proxy would be a 'previously unknown' terrorist group that is based in a nation like Canada, Britain or even the US (in essence these Islamic terrorist kooks would camp for years in a nation that is one of our good friends to ensure that there are no links to a veritable islamic nation).
What would happen then? What we have is a terrorist nuclear strike against a major financial/political/population hub. However all we know is that the perps were terrorists, islamic, belonging to a 'new group' that sprouted from nowhere, and they have been (let's just say) British citizens for like 10 years. The politicians would want to strike ...they would seethe for a strike .....but against who? Britain? Obviously not! The original countries that these terrorists came from? That ould be a good start, but remember this is being viewed by politicians and hence it would be hard to pick a nation just because the terrorists were born there 3 decades ago!
Think of Saudi Arabia. 15 out of the 19 9-11 terrorists were Saudi. And a lot of the Al Queda financing was done by some rich echelon of Saudi social strata (either on purpose or as 'protection' to fend of zealots). Yet Saudi Arabia is seen as one of our greatest allies in the world (obviously the 'average' guy sees Saudi Arabia as a back-stabbing forked-tongue enemy; and the average politician also thinks the Sauds are evil; but due to certain 'reasons' officially the Saudis are among our 'greatest allies').
What if the jehadi terrorist strike is carried out by some asinine jehadi mules who have British passports (or Canadian or US) but were originally born in Saudi Arabia? That would be a major conundrum for Congress. Obviously for the quintessential Freeper the choice would be simple. Show the Saudis we do not let Americans get nuked and do nothing .....however Congress is comprised of politicians who have to serve a wide variety of interests, and sadly meeting the wishes of their constituents is not that high on their list. Chances are what would happen is two carrier groups would be sent to the Arabian Sea and some country like Iran would get bombed to the stone age while the Saudi Sheiks would be sipping their Jasmine tea and laughing their @$$#$ off in the desert watching our brave men bombing the Iranians.
By the way ...to those who say no such thing can happen (as in no terrorist could ahve a US passport) ....i am typing this post with MSNBC on and they are showing this documentary about a guy called Ali mohammed who was a member of Al Queda. Nothing special, apart from the fact that he was an instructor at Forth Bragg teaching our special forces tactics and stuff. Yet this guy was discovered to be a senior member of Bin Ladens organization and what happened to him? He was discharged with a rank of Sergeant ....possibly due to shame from the powers that be that they missed this! If that can happen i think Al Queda (ooops, soory, the terrorist groups will be 'unknown') can send several jehadi mules into the US(or Canada or Britain) years before the attack and have them become citizens!
Anyways the solution for me (and you) would be simple .....nuke the Islamic nations. However although Congress would hold memorials and say how they are going to 'crush' the perps i think the victims would not be the real crooks but some nation like North Korea that did nothing but be an efficient scapegoat.
While nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia would be laughing their @$$#$ off knwing that they supplied the money and logistics, but nothing is happening to them (apart from getting US tax payer money for use of their bases).
Ironic.