Appropriate Retaliation

[Seattleallstar]

Originally Posted by sham

At some future date, suppose five powerful nukes were set off near simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. 250,000 Americans are killed instantly. Another million or more are doomed from blast injuries and radiation. Intelligence indicates that the bombs were supplied to Al Qaeda from Country X. What do you believe would be an appropriate US response to Country X?

country x should be subject to a thorough investigation about their involement with the terrorist group, if there is some sort of collaboration between the two is found. I believe some sort of sanction or imposed economic policy put on the country, then the US should be able to stage millitary action in the country to ferret out the terrorist cells. Futhermore, if more evidence is found that country x and the terrorist wholeheartedly share the same views about the US, may God have mercy on their souls.

[brianwspencer]

I don't see why people are hesitant to talk about this. It may be a stupid hypothetical, but certainly possible given the state of our world.

If we could prove, unequivocally, that a country knowingly supplied nukes to a terrorist group that then nuked several major cities in our country then the course of action would be easy. I'm not talking "Iraq-style intelligence" proving....i mean REALLY, without a single doubt in anyone's mind proving it...

we would then proceed to wipe them off the map. that would take care of that one. And I'm not talking Iraq-style wipe them off the map, I'm talking about literally just bombing them back to the stone age. That would certainly fix that problem.

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

I don't see why people are hesitant to talk about this. It may be a stupid hypothetical, but certainly possible given the state of our world.

If we could prove, unequivocally, that a country knowingly supplied nukes to a terrorist group that then nuked several major cities in our country then the course of action would be easy. I'm not talking "Iraq-style intelligence" proving....i mean REALLY, without a single doubt in anyone's mind proving it...

we would then proceed to wipe them off the map. that would take care of that one. And I'm not talking Iraq-style wipe them off the map, I'm talking about literally just bombing them back to the stone age. That would certainly fix that problem.

Brian,
Though I don't disagree with you on this, I'll just say that this "game" has been played before.
It was called the "cold war". It had many twists and turns. Drilling school kids to duck and cover under their little desks (I did that!), Cuban missiles,
proxy wars...I could go on and on.
Detante made sane people on both sides of the meaning of MAD..mutually agreed (assured) destruction. Unfortunately, the capacity to eliminate all life on the planet by thirty times (despite ABM treaties), warnings of "nuclear winter",
hasn't dissuaded other nations from wanting to jump on the "nuke train".
It's beyond MAD...it's insane!
btw...personally, i don't think "human kind" will wimper away in this manner.
It will happen because a genetically engineered virus "escapes" accidentally from a lab thats trying to "refine" bio weapons. Saves time on rebuilding infrastructure. Problem is vaccine needs to be created before it gets loose.
Then the population needs to be immunized. This will tip the hand, but maybe keep the fingers off the "button".
Let's hope so.

[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Downthestretch55

Brian,
Though I don't disagree with you on this, I'll just say that this "game" has been played before.
It was called the "cold war". It had many twists and turns. Drilling school kids to duck and cover under their little desks (I did that!), Cuban missiles,
proxy wars...I could go on and on.
Detante made sane people on both sides of the meaning of MAD..mutually agreed destruction. Unfortunately, the capacity to eliminate all life on the planet by thirty times (despite ABM treaties), warnings of "nuclear winter",
hasn't dissuaded other nations from wanting to jump on the "nuke train".
It's beyond MAD...it's insane!
btw...personally, i don't think "human kind" will wimper away in this manner.
It will happen because a genetically engineered virus "escapes" accidentally from a lab thats trying to "refine" bio weapons. Saves time on rebuilding infrastructure. Problem is vaccine needs to be created before it gets loose.
Then the population needs to be immunized. This will tip the hand, but maybe keep the fingers off the "button".
Let's hope so.

I was actually going to talk about MAD -- because if we could prove that a country willfully put weapons like that in the hands of terrorists knowing that they would just be used against us...no country in the world is stupid enough to think that they would still exist very long afterwards

[Downthestretch55]

Originally Posted by brianwspencer

I was actually going to talk about MAD -- because if we could prove that a country willfully put weapons like that in the hands of terrorists knowing that they would just be used against us...no country in the world is stupid enough to think that they would still exist very long afterwards

Correct on that. It's the "fear factor".
That's why I don't think it will happen that way.