Nuclear retaliation

If Russia/China were found to be involved it would be an act of war and as a member of NATO would lead to the outbreak of WW3.
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Scratch China from that; NATO is strictly European theatre of War when we want it to be
 
wozencl said:
Do nuclear weapons with an equivalent force of 50 kilotons that can be detonated at ground level actually exist? .
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well yeah, most nukes can be set to go off at ground level.

But the small ones (in volume not yeild) that are useful to a terrorist organisation are pretty advanced western and Russian ones which are well guarded.

IF NK/Iran make one it wont be down to the very small dimensions of modern nuclear weapons.
 
There would be no point in a nuclear strike on a state that had no ability to retaliate or who would retreat through other means.

I mean, a nuclear strike is serious stuff. We are talking, at a minimum, of dropping a bomb with ten times the destruction force of Hiroshima. The immediate destruction would pale in comparison to the long-term effects from radiation, yet alone the economic effects and the ensuing poverty and desperation.

I think possibly the only fair use for our nuclear weapons, would be in defence against a persevering aggressor who held human and civil rights, social standards etc. in lower esteem.

As the old saying goes, "with great power comes great responsibility". According to many scientists our nuclear weapons give us the power to literally terminate the majority of life on this planet. There isn't much greater a responsibility than that, so we should use that power very, very wisely.
 
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Robot Chicken said:
If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk.

If you give a mouse some milk, he'll want some more.

If you give a mouse more milk...he'll develop a taste for human blood.

If he develops a taste for human blood, he'll become a vampire.

If he becomes a vampire, he'll have to make some followers.

Now, if he makes some followers, they will need to feed.

If they feed too much, the National Guard will be called out.

If the National Guard is called out, they too will become fodder for the vampires.

If the National Guard fails, the President will call in a nuclear strike.

If a nuke is dropped, hundreds of thousands of people will die! America will become a nuclear wasteland and collapse! With no one to keep the rest of world's nukes in check, every crackpot nation will launch their own! Eventually, the entire Earth will be destroyed!

...And that's why I had to kill daddy. He was giving a mouse a cookie. Hmm-hmm. Sleep well, sweetie.
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Tefal said:
well yeah, most nukes can be set to go off at ground level.

But the small ones (in volume not yeild) that are useful to a terrorist organisation are pretty advanced western and Russian ones which are well guarded.

IF NK/Iran make one it wont be down to the very small dimensions of modern nuclear weapons.
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Cheers, that was kind of what I was trying to get at. Modern nuclear weapons are sophisticated pieces of kit so one wouldn't simply be able to borrow a warhead throw it in a suitcase with some dynamite and detonate it. If countries such as Iran and Iraq have struggled to obtain nuclear weapons how is a group of Islamic extremists going to do it?

I've always thought the nuclear risk that terrorist organisations pose is through the possible use of dirty bombs - coventional explosives with added radioactive material which aren't anyway near as devatasting as nuclear weapons but would still cause widespread panic.
 
Personally I don't think it would be the correct response, and I don't think politically we ever would. A strategic military attack yes, but not nukes.
 
wozencl said:
Cheers, that was kind of what I was trying to get at. Modern nuclear weapons are sophisticated pieces of kit so one wouldn't simply be able to borrow a warhead throw it in a suitcase with some dynamite and detonate it. If countries such as Iran and Iraq have struggled to obtain nuclear weapons how is a group of Islamic extremists going to do it?

I've always thought the nuclear risk that terrorist organisations pose is through the possible use of dirty bombs - coventional explosives with added radioactive material which aren't anyway near as devatasting as nuclear weapons but would still cause widespread panic.
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yeah dirty bombs are the only real threat tbh.

But even then they are nowhere near as dangerous as the media make out.

Especially with the recent advances made to counter them.


Now rather than having to sand blast everything we've got spray on rubber stuff that you coat all the walls in then just peal off to remove most of the particles.

Generally you're more at risk from the conventional explosives than the radioactive part.


Now western dirty bombs are something else (salted nuclear weapons) they will **** a city up[ for a very long time.
 
wozencl said:
Cheers, that was kind of what I was trying to get at. Modern nuclear weapons are sophisticated pieces of kit so one wouldn't simply be able to borrow a warhead throw it in a suitcase with some dynamite and detonate it. If countries such as Iran and Iraq have struggled to obtain nuclear weapons how is a group of Islamic extremists going to do it?

I've always thought the nuclear risk that terrorist organisations pose is through the possible use of dirty bombs - coventional explosives with added radioactive material which aren't anyway near as devatasting as nuclear weapons but would still cause widespread panic.
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It's a hypothectical question and as such the situation doesn't need to be realistic
 
I know that :) - I did answer the hypothetical question earlier in the thread.... I was just trying to clarify what is and isn't possible/feasible. I find completely hypothetical questions with no basis in reality a waste of time - maybe I'm too serious sometimes...
 
Hypothetical questions are sometimes the most fun. Reality can be quite boring at times!

Besides, it's not completely impossible for it to happen. If you had a group of people intelligent enough, emotionally motivated enough AND who had enough money, it could be done.
 
The Jericho series was a ok show that portrayed a nuclear attack on a countries own population. Shame it was dropped.
 
xxalxx said:
The Jericho series was a ok show that portrayed a nuclear attack on a countries own population. Shame it was dropped.
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It was awful. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The acting was terrible, the science was way off the mark and the plot was just ridiculous.
 
Grrrrr said:
It was awful. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The acting was terrible, the science was way off the mark and the plot was just ridiculous.
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I didnt mind it, turn brain off, watch without having to pay much attention. Typical Hallmark channel series :)
 
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