So what do we(U.S.) do if 20 nukes go off simultaneously in the U.S.?

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Lancer
This assumes that Hollywood failed to save the 20 cities.

Ah, gotcha.


Seriously though, this would **** us up. It'd be like the barbarians sacking Rome. If they were major bombs, not dirty bombs, I dunno if we'd recover. I would anticipate HUGE changes to American society that would threaten our Democracy. Closing of the borders, rounding up of all Muslims, more indiscriminate invading of ME countries. If I survived, I dunno if I'd object that much even.

I doubt we'd use nukes.

DC
New York
Chicago
Miami
Los Angeles
Houston
Dallas
Seattle
Atlanta
Boston
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Detroit
Las Vegas (den of sin and all, of course they'd have to hit it)
Denver
St. Louis
Jacksonville
Phoenix
Nashville
Baltimore

All gone.....

I can't imagine.

[Lancer]

We would definately use nukes. We don't have the ground strength to invade anyone else. We would nuke, because we were nuked, but much, much worse.

[BeBMan]

Just curious, what if they don't go off simultaneously, but one after another?

[Lancer]

Depends. If there were enough time in between then some might be found and disarmed. Also people might have time to evacuate, saving many lives. The most effective attack would be all at once.

[Gatekeeper]

Is this guy talking 20 one-megaton city busting nukes, 20 350-kiloton missile silo killing nukes, backpack blow-up-a-square-mile-or-two nukes, or dirty bombs with relatively little physical destruction, but more widespread radiological effects? Those sort of details make a helluva difference in how America would respond.

Personally, if this nightmare scenario would ever come to pass, I think the "nukes" would be small, radiological weapons (aka dirty bombs). Such an attack, while bad, wouldn't warrant the slagging of the entire Middle East. Definitely some sort of combined military/intelligence/economic response, but most definitely *not* mass nuking.

Gatekeeper

[Zkribbler]

Then again, they could set off 1 and then send a message: "We have 19 more. We'll be setting off 1 per week for the next 19 weeks. And we're not going to tell you which city is targetted next." That would effectively shut down the country as all major cites are evacuated.

Oh no! They blew up Kennibuckport. You b*st*ards!

[Lancer]

I assumed nukes from the old soviet arsenal, don't know why I did that. Even tactical battlefield nukes would leave millions of dead and be deliverable in the trunk of a car.

Zkrib, after the cities were evacuated the ultimatum would come. For every American city nuked, 10 arab cities will be nuked, starting with the countries that support terrorism, Iran and Syria. That would be the end of that. They would tell us where the nukes were before you could say 'uncle'. For the one American city nuked, I'd expect Tehran and Damascus to be destroyed.

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Lancer
I assumed nukes from the old soviet arsenal, don't know why I did that. Even tactical battlefield nukes would leave millions of dead and be deliverable in the trunk of a car.

Zkrib, after the cities were evacuated the ultimatum would come. For every American city nuked, 10 arab cities will be nuked, starting with the countries that support terrorism, Iran and Syria. That would be the end of that. They would tell us where the nukes were before you could say 'uncle'. For the one American city nuked, I'd expect Tehran and Damascus to be destroyed.

and since most of the terrorists come from saudi arabia, pakistan and afghanistan, why would they give a **** that those cities are destroyed ?

think islamabad, karachi, kabul, kandahar, riyadh...

but of course, those are allies ...

[Theben]

I'm wondering how this guy knows so much that the CIA and FBI don't...

[Vince278]

Originally posted by BeBro
What if the Earth stops turning in 20 minutes?

Massive earthquakes and tidal waves as everything momentarily shifts eastward at the speed of rotation. (Hold on to that tree! )

[Timexwatch]

I thought that the term "backpack nukes" or "suitcase nukes" was a misnomer; I've read that they're still the size of a small fridge.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by Theben
I'm wondering how this guy knows so much that the CIA and FBI don't...

playing the devils advocate....

its possible the guy is right and there are 20 nukes sitting around the nation, just the CIA and FBI don't think its gonna happen tommorow, and dont wanna set off massive panic.

my question is: if a city gets decimated by a good sized nuke (assuming the terrorists can get quality stuff and not a dirty bomb), how does the rest of the nation find out? I assume most media outlets would be based out of a downtown area, and it would take a while for everyone to realise what just happened, but maybe I'm wrong.

[:) Smiley]

Isn't critical mass only around 22 kilos though?

[The diplomat]

If that happened, the US would get support from our allies. I would mobilize NATO. I would completely convert the US economy to a total war footing and reinstate the draft. Then, the US would launch an all out conventional war against every terrorist sponsor state in the middle east simultaneously, including Iran, Saudia Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Somolia.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Ninot


playing the devils advocate....

its possible the guy is right and there are 20 nukes sitting around the nation, just the CIA and FBI don't think its gonna happen tommorow, and dont wanna set off massive panic.

my question is: if a city gets decimated by a good sized nuke (assuming the terrorists can get quality stuff and not a dirty bomb), how does the rest of the nation find out? I assume most media outlets would be based out of a downtown area, and it would take a while for everyone to realise what just happened, but maybe I'm wrong.

Through the Internet and the blogosphere.

And assuming the blast doesn't reach this far into the suburbs, I'll let you know on my blog. So you just have to keep checking my blog every day to be sure:

http://www.oneandfour.org