What do you think would happen if Al Qaeda detonated a nuclear weapon in a US city

[Polish3d]

I've read a number of books, "One Percent Doctrine" (Ron Suskind) "Imperial Hubris," "Through Our Enemy's Eyes" etcetera and it makes me think there is a pretty serious potential for this to occur. Bin Laden apparently spends his time infilitrating middle eastern import/export companies that trade with the west.

Anyway, let's theorize, what do you think would be the fallout (please pardon the unintentional pun) if let's say:

A small yield nuclear device is detonated in a the center of a major US city, not necessarily New York or DC. Knowing their thinking, they might want to target a place that's associated with our captialism, military, or that has "a lot of Jewish" people. I can't think of where offhand at the moment, but let's say that Al Qaeda manages to obtain nuclear material through the black market from a former Soviet bloc country, and with Pakistani nuclear scientists they are able to construct a crude bomb. (this is actually close to what Bin Laden has already tried, the A.Q. Khan situation).


Let's say it is detonated in some US city, take your pick, Seattle, Los Angeles, or NY/WashDC. It is a crude device and it is floated into a harbor of one of our major cities. It essentially destroys everything within a one mile radius from ground zero, and immediately kills 30,000 people.


If possible, without being excessively partisan or sarcastic, does anyone have any idea of what the government has thought about as far as a response to such an act? Speculate?

 

[z0mb13]

nuclear war?

 

[Unheard]

Fastball - Are You Ready For The Fallout

I was wondering how you're feeling
i thought I saw you kneeling
And holding your gut last night
It looked like you were praying
But I heard someone saying
You had been in an awful fight
You get the worst of it everytime
Lashing out with no reason or rhyme
To lose all this rage, at so tender an age
Little baby growing up in a rat cage

Chorus 1:
Are you ready for the fallout?
Who you gonna call out?
When does it finally come to blows?
I think that you're forgetting
The blood that you'll be letting
Has a price on it, no one knows
You may be suffering in your sleep
You may be getting in too deep
And you may not care for advice that I share
In one ear and out the other

Chorus 2:
Soon you will learn how to swallow a tear
So when you're old you can cry in your beer
Do you spit at the face staring back in the mirror?
Do you have any self respect?

Chorus 2

Well what the hell did you expect?

Chorus 1

Are you ready for the fallout?
Who you gonna call out?

 

[alien42]

we would probably go to war with australia or antartica

 

[GasX]

I would STOP POSTING

 

[jtvang125]

A lot of dead, innocent civilians and total destruction of the city?

I don't know. Isn't that what most bombs do?

 

[TallBill]

People would die, buildings would be demolished, and more money would go to the war on terror.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
nuclear war?

against who? alqueda isnt a country last time i checked.

 

[Chaotic42]

I think that we would immediately go into national or at least regional martial law. Anyone even remotely suspected of possible terrorist activities would immediately be put into prison camps.

No people or goods (other than oil) would be allowed from the middle east. I think that the country would be in lock-down and the 4th ammendment would fly out of the window.

 

[jpeyton]

An invasion of Afghanistan, the removal of the Taliban, and hunting down al-Qaeda.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

 

[Vegitto]

I don't think the US would start a nuclear war unless it was a NATION that bombed them.

 

[rudder]

I bet the military would not have any trouble meeting recruiting goals.

 

[MX2]

Global Thermonuclear War

 

[tweakmm]

Fan<--------------sh!t

 

[OutHouse]

the gloves would come off for sure when it came to the troops on the ground. if a village in afghanistan is alqueda friendly that village will be destroyed. And i am pretty sure our governement will tell amestiy international and other groups of their ilk to go f*ck themselves. war will become a brutal as it was in WWI and WWII. no remorse just total war and death.

 

[Jawo]

Beyond the obvious, its apparent that Iran, North Korea and other "rogue" states want to detonate a nuclear bomb. From readings it seems like the real problem is a radiation bomb, where the buildings aren't blow away, but people get radiation posioning and die.

Obligatory link: The End of the World

 

[acemcmac]

2nd ammendment FTW. I am infintley more affraid of my government's over-reaction to terrorisim (in terms of more freedoms unjustly taken away from the masses) than terrorisim itself. The introduction of nuclear weapons to the picture changes nothing.

 

[chambersc]

Originally posted by: Citrix
the gloves would come off for sure when it came to the troops on the ground. if a village in afghanistan is alqueda friendly that village will be destroyed. And i am pretty sure our governement will tell amestiy international and other groups of their ilk to go f*ck themselves. war will become a brutal as it was in WWI and WWII. no remorse just total war and death.

I hope.

 

[Polish3d]

From many sources I've read that a radiological bomb would not cause many casualties from the radiation itself, but it would cause panic and perhaps a reluctancy for good or non-good reason to return to the area.

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: alien42
we would probably go to war with australia or antartica

 

[wheresmybacon]

islam, the religion of peace.

those nice fellows would never harm us! gosh!

 

[torpid]

It would be the biggest and last mistake they would ever make, because the entire world (except a few pockets possibly) would unite and erradicate them from the face of the planet. People don't have a huge tolerance for nuclear weapons these days, in case you haven't noticed.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I think we'd turn some sand into glass.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Citrix
the gloves would come off for sure when it came to the troops on the ground. if a village in afghanistan is alqueda friendly that village will be destroyed. And i am pretty sure our governement will tell amestiy international and other groups of their ilk to go f*ck themselves. war will become a brutal as it was in WWI and WWII. no remorse just total war and death.

That would be fantastic. You mean 5 years after 9/11, it would take another attack on our country for us to actually finish the job in Afghanistan? Instead of crushing our enemy as we should have, we half-assed Afghanistan and floundered in Iraq, allowing the Taliban and al-Qaeda to regroup and regain their strength.

 

[torpid]

BTW, 30,000 is an extremely low estimate. Try a hundred thousand, if not more, especially when you account for the eventual deaths due to radiation sicknesses. Assuming it hit a populous target, of course.