Protesters march on Livermore lab to oppose "bunker busters"

modesto bee ^ | toshi maeda

[hoosierskypilot]

LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) - About 1,000 people rallied outside a federal weapons laboratory Sunday to protest the Bush administration's plan to design so-called nuclear "bunker buster" bombs that could burrow into the ground and destroy buried targets. Protesters came from as far as Washington D.C. to march on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about 35 miles east of San Francisco. Protest organizers and a lab spokesman agreed that the crowd numbered about 1,000 people.

[psychoknk]

"If our country is sending the message to other countries to stop the development of weapons of mass destruction, then shouldn't we lead by example?" Rodriguez said.

Something about this idealistic additude really bothers me. While leading by example might work in an elementary school (she is a teacher), it is unlikely, and by unlikely I mean a snowball's chance in hell, that it would work on other nuclear powers, such as Russia and China. It seems as though these people honestly believe that if we disarm, everyone else will follow suit and the world will be one big happy amusement park.

[Spruce]

If we just give the North Koreans love and understanding they will come out of their atomic labs under the mountains.

[Howlin]

What am I missing here? I thought we HAD these already.

[dts32041]

What the kum by ya crowd fail to realize, there are people out there that hate us period.

To these people 9-11-2001 was caused by our attitudes to the rest of the world.

All we ever wanted to do we sell our products and basically be left alone, but like the big guy in the bar the little idiots won't do that.

So we have to on occasion resort to some drastic means of sell protection.

So I say to these idealists, MOAB anyone.

[nathanbedford]

Or Disney World on gay day. Ann Coulter's book, TREASON, could not be more timely.

[Rebelbase]

These folks are ingnorant of history and despartely want to belong to a cause. They are disillusioned and naive.

[George Smiley]

Protesters march on Livermore lab to oppose "bunker busters"

Y'all come on in-- the range is right over here.

[mbynack]

Bunker Busters aren't designed as WMD. They're supposed to be designed for surgical strikes against hardened targets.

[cav68]

Just got a powerful idea, since they want to be involved lets give them an opportunity. Have them collect some summer attire and send them over to the war zone and use them as bunker busters. That's correct send them into the bunkers for a peace movement, yeah that will do it . Damn fools need to let some of the air out of their sails and return to the Real World.

[WestPacSailor]

What am I missing here? I thought we HAD these already.

We have bunker busters, but not nuclear ones. The largest currently in the U.S. Inventory is the BLU-113 penetrator round. It's essentially a length of 8-inch artillery tube packed with explosives and either a laser or GPS guidance system. Drop this little 5,000 lb package from 35,000 feet or more and it is going almost 1,000 mph when it hits the ground.

[WestPacSailor]

Bunker Busters aren't designed as WMD

True. As a matter of fact, a large nuke makes a pretty poor bunker buster. Great for leveling cities and large military complexes, but lousy at penetration. That's why they built the bunkers in the first place, to escape a surface or air burst nuke.

[ChadGore]

These people simply are on the wrong team.

[gdc314]

The protest came just days after the mayor of Hiroshima openly criticized the Bush administration during the 58th anniversary of the world's first A-bomb attack, saying Washington's apparent worship of "nuclear weapons as God" posed a threat to world peace.

What Nerve! Threat to world peace my a**....I'm so thankful that we got the bomb before those savages.

[Freedom4US]

"Global disarmament starts at home."

I'm convinced these people are missing key connections in their brain, either destroyed through drugs or perhaps a congenital defect or something. We all know how well gun control works in the US - exactly 180 degrees from the effect desired. The United States disarming would be one of the dumbest things imaginable. They want a consistency and logic that doesn't exist in the world, never has and never will. They either want the US to negotiate from a position of weakness or they are incapable of understanding the world as it is.

[Tijeras_Slim]

That's why they built the bunkers in the first place, to escape a surface or air burst nuke.

Sedan Crater: 104KT buried to 635 feet. Scaled to simulate a 1 Megaton Surface burst. The B-53 gravity bomb in the stockpile is a 9 MT parachute retarded device that was initially intended to destroy the Soviet civil defense shelters around Moscow. Surface bursts can do the trick, but it's messy. The penetrator makes much more sense.

[WestPacSailor]

Surface bursts can do the trick, but it's messy. The penetrator makes much more sense.

Precisely my point. Why kill a fly with a sledghammer when a well aimed swat with a rolled up newspaper will do the job quite nicely.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Why kill a fly with a sledghammer?

It's sitting on the forehead of somebody who's really pissed us off? :)

[Bluntpoint]

If their are any full time idiots out there, go ahead and call me an idiot "basher" because I really hate these idiots.

I am prejudiced against idiots. I love talking about idiots. I think every story about an idiot is news that we all need to read and it probably was not posted with just the intention to bash idiots.

[martin gibson]

If we just give the North Koreans love and understanding they will come out of their atomic labs under the mountains.

dude, arms are, like, for hugging...