WMD threat could spark American nuclear strike

Times Online ^ | September 12, 2005 | Giles Whittell

[Billthedrill]

Oh, all right. No Austin. But that's only if you promise to send all the liberals to concentration camps. Heck, town'd be empty.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I meant as an anonymous, reverse terror weapon.

Still to much hassle for too little bang. If we wanted to go that route then a small vial of some bug would be much easier.

It is one of the reasons I don't worry about dirty bombs. You have to build a big one to get any sort of effectiveness and the radioactive material is a pain to transport and conceal.

Considering they have detectors that can tell if you have had chemo in the past three months from several yards away and they use them in areas that might be a target is not much way to get enough of it in one place to make a difference.

And besides who would we used it against?

Terrorism works on free and semi-free societies not totalitarian ones.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Still to much hassle for too little bang. If we wanted to go that route then a small vial of some bug would be much easier.

Technical detail. Still fits within my metaphor.

And besides who would we use it against?

"Use" and "suggest" aren't the same thing. The essence is worry. If you were an IslamoNut, wouldn't you worry about the possibility of a contaminated Kabba? Might it limit your aggressiveness against shrines of others (not necessarily religious)?

Terrorism works on free and semi-free societies not totalitarian ones.

We mostly agree here. Part of my post was directed at asymmetrical warfare. However, I'm not sure that the right dimension is free versus unfree. Perhaps a better one would be communicative versus uncommunicative, and freedom and communication tend to be related. The relation isn't absolute: the propaganda of a dictatorship can communicate its own viewpoint while blanketing others very effectively (Goebbels, Pravda, Islam). The key is that communication of terrorist possibilities can cause worry. So why is it that the US is aflame with rumors of covert destruction, but the MidEast is not?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

So why is it that the US is aflame with rumors of covert destruction, but the MidEast is not?

But it is. You have never seen such a cesspit of rumors of how the Jews and the Americans are engaging in nefarious plots against them.

Some of them are so far out that even Art Bell would say, "You have got to be joking!"

[Doc On The Bay]

'isn't necessary to use 'Nukes, (with all the attendant nuclear fallout garbage.)

Inert Metal Rods (3"by 6' Tungsten Rods) dropped from Geosynchronous Orbit Levels will be Quite Sufficient to create the "Level of Destruction" needed to eradicate ANY "Target!"

& NO "Radioactive Fallout Issues!"

Orbital Weapons make the use of "Nukes" less Necessary!

I Wonder if the States who sponsor Terrorism have ANY IDEA of the Level of Destructive Force they face.

We have NO NEED to use 'NUKES;--we've got BETTER, cleaner, More Precise & more destructive orbital weapons!

The "Terrorists"-& Their Sponsors- have NO IDEA how much we have restrained our response.

MECCA, MEDINA, QOM, TEHRAN, DAMASCUS exist by the THINNEST of Threads.

America's Patience is wearing Thin!

Doc

[Pearls Before Swine]

But it is. You have never seen such a cesspit of rumors of how the Jews and the Americans are engaging in nefarious plots against them.

Yeah, I've seen it--everything from Protocols of the Elders of Zion making blood matzoh to lasers killing Arafat. But, those are the kind of rumors that make them mad, not the kind that make them afraid. Maybe directed rumors are needed, not the usual sort that grow wild or sprout from the minds of the Imams.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I would disagree. It does make them afraid and it makes them feel helpless. And that is what their rulers use to control them. "Do as we say and we will protect you from the evil ones."

I really don't think that there is much that we could do that would make us more monstrous then they already believe us to be.

[dhs12345]

I like your ideas about undermining those governments covertly.

Have a theory about why we haven't been attacked since 9/11 and that our cities may never be nuked -- because they are afraid that we will respond in kind and again. Attacks may remain small scale, i.e., like the twin towers. Of course, I could be wrong.