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

[Ninot]

Originally posted by OzzyKP


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

Hmm... but if someone living in an area like, oh, lets say Delaware, had several major cities go nuclear around them, would those lines of communication still be working? I claim ignorance on how the Internet works on such levels.

[Patroklos]

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

If the terrorists dont want to see their civilization summarily occupied the next day, their target list (assuming real nukes) should be.

Norfolk, VA
Norfolk, VA
Norfolk, VA
Norfolk, VA
Norfolk, VA
San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA
San Diego, CA
Hartford, CT
Mayport, FL
Bremerton, WA
Bremertan, WA
Fayetville, NC
Fayetville, NC
Washington, DC
Tampa, FL
Pearl Harbor, HI
Wilmington, DE
Charleston, SC


Of course now that the have made a conventional response impossible for a few months at least, they are guarunteed to be nuked.

As they should be.

[Patroklos]

Hmm... but if someone living in an area like, oh, lets say Delaware, had several major cities go nuclear around them, would those lines of communication still be working? I claim ignorance on how the Internet works on such levels.

Satillite TV, phones. Even without power, enough people have generators. And of course, radio.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I'll repeat ...

Terrorrist nukes, even twenty, would not kill millions of Americans.

More than likely at most, a few tens of thousands would die within the year as a result of the dirty nukes. The problem is dispersal method - Terrorists don't have access to enough nuclear material to make an explosive bomb, and even if they did it would be too easily detected/traced, and too large.

Instead they basically make 'dirty' material that is then 'dispersed' through conventional methods - a bus exploding, for example, or even a backpack explosive ("Backpack nukes", or "briefcase nukes"). However, the dispersal would not kill a whole lot of people - it would be annoying, of course, but it would not kill that many more people than the bus itself killed, unless they got in a really good spot [like near a concert or something].

In fact, that's the most likely scenario, and the reason they're very concerned about stadiums - that a concert or a football game or some such is attacked. A terrorist could take out something around 15,000 people in a tightly packed concert, not immediately but due to radiation exposure.

I'LL repeat: HUNDREDS of FISSION nuclear devices have gone missing from Chechnia in light of the fall of the soviet union.

[Vesayen]

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.

We would instantly see a radiation peek in censor throughout the country.... plus satelies would see it.

We have round the clock world wide monitoring of radiation levels.

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Lancer
You guys see this as business as usual. I DO see millions of Americans dieing if 20 cities got nuked, even with small bombs. People seem to think we would bother to find those behind the attacks. I think they would die with their civilizations, I have no doubt about it. The only thing I wonder about is places like Egypt and Pakistan. I'm not sure they would be nuked.

First of all, why would reprisal include the nuking of a state when the attack was conducted by a non-state organization like Al Qaeda? Second of all, is killing millions of innocent civilians "justice" for you? Third, terrorist come even from friendly countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, would you nuke those friendly governments too just because of a dozen guys? Would you nuke countries like the Philipinnes and Indonesia which also have Al Qaeda cells?

The responsible thing to do would simply be a massive invasion of large parts of the middle east and a complete and forceful change in their governments and societies. The moment a nuke is dropped in reprisal you can pretty much count "justice" out.

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Vesayen
We would instantly see a radiation peek in censor throughout the country.... plus satelies would see it.

We have round the clock world wide monitoring of radiation levels.

That's why you anticipated India and Pakistan's nuclear tests right?

Those things only work once a nuke goes off, not against a determined attempt to conceal these weapons.

[Vesayen]

Not to the weapon lol...... nuclear weapons tend to be shielded so you don't die of radiation poisoning .

He asked how we would know if a city got nuked, since communication would be cut.

[mrmitchell]

All gone.....

Why on Earth would they only hit population centers? Patroklos did a fairly good job with his list, but you're both off.

I think it would be far more damaging to America if they hit all the major points in the West. Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo, and/or at least one of the bases in central Asia or Europe that the US has. And then they would start working on American targets.

It would be far more devestating than just American population centers...

--
Now as for what happens after? We are screwed. We probably try to take them down with us.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Smiley
While bathrooms are often the best place to be in case of nuclear attack (they are generally in the interior of a building), nukes are still

In the event of a nuclear war, do not use the elevator of a building that has been hit by a nuclear weapon, use the stairs instead.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by Master Zen


First of all, why would reprisal include the nuking of a state when the attack was conducted by a non-state organization like Al Qaeda? Second of all, is killing millions of innocent civilians "justice" for you? Third, terrorist come even from friendly countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, would you nuke those friendly governments too just because of a dozen guys? Would you nuke countries like the Philipinnes and Indonesia which also have Al Qaeda cells?

The responsible thing to do would simply be a massive invasion of large parts of the middle east and a complete and forceful change in their governments and societies. The moment a nuke is dropped in reprisal you can pretty much count "justice" out.

The question was "What would we (US) do...not 'is it justice'. No it's not justice, since you ask. There are loads of innocent people in these countries. That wouldn't save them in my opinion. They, and the terrorists that live among them, that are recruited down the street at one of their churches, would get nuked. That was the question, what would happen...and it's a matter of opinion certainly. How to react though? Your 'massive invasion' is pure BS. You going to go in with the first wave? Would you have invaded Japan instead of nuking? Would you have sacrificed a million american boys and many millions of Japanese men, women and children who would have assualted into our machine guns or fell victim to our tactical and strategic airstrikes? Sure, inocents died in those Japanese cities, but every american drafted was an inocent in that way. All those Japanese kids given sharpened sticks and told to repel the invasion were innocent...

I just love the bleeding heart solutions.

War is a dirty business, and if the enemy nukes 20 US cities, then we'll get really dirty, really fast. That's my take.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Master Zen
This would be akin to nuking Afghanistan and killing millions of civilians if Al Qaeda had attacked with nukes during 9/11.

Northern Afghanistan would be fine, it would be the southern area Bin Laden calls the base that would get plastered.

[Jon Shafer]

Do people really think that terrorists willing to do this would actually care if the Middle East was nuked as well? If that happened it would simply cause more people to join their cause, which is probably exactly what they want.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by Trip
Do people really think that terrorists willing to do this would actually care if the Middle East was nuked as well? If that happened it would simply cause more people to join their cause, which is probably exactly what they want.

I don't know, wouldn't even a fundamentalist have a huge problem if a nuke were set off in Mecca? Wouldn't they like, think twice if that might happen?

[Jon Shafer]

I think that the terrorists (or those willing to do something like this) are to the point that they don't even care about that stuff any more. They're so fanatical to destroy and maim where that becomes their true goal, rather than a religious motive.