Pentagon weighs pullout from Japan hot zone

CBS NEWS ^ | March 21st, 2011 | David Martin

[FootBall]

CBS News)

THE PENTAGON - The Defense Department was considering Monday night ordering the mandatory departure of all American military personnel and their families from the areas of Japan threatened by radiation, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports

[Trueblackman]

I heard in the news that my old carrier the GW left Yokosuka in a hurry today as well.

[D-fendr]

all American military personnel and their families from the areas of Japan threatened by radiation

Why wouldn't this be a no-brainer?

[prairiebreeze]

I hate that Obama’s war is distracting media attention away from Japan. Sure hope we can get aid into Japan, somehow.

[Noob1999]

So we’re pulling out??

Well, we sure are good friends of the Japanese when they need us.

There is so much cleanup, so many bodies to find, so many services to reconnect, so much devastation that it is incomprehensible!

I’m glad that I’m not in the service in Japan, but I’ll bet’cha that 99 percent of our troops there, are proud to help the Japanese people in their time of need.

Proud Americans - That’s what makes us great!

[prairiebreeze]

If they come back when the wind shifts, that will be one thing. If they leave for good, I’ll maintain it’s because the Muslim in Chief ordered them to leave the area.

[allmost]

Good timing for the whole ‘Libya’ thing. They knew for weeks. The sides were set.

[Ronin]

Oh Futz...

[kingu]

Hasn't the media frenzy and the anti-nuke crowd already had their catastrophe and moved on to depleted uranium bullets that are going to kill hundreds of thousands in Libya for decades to come?

Seriously, at the minimal radiation levels as verified by Japanese media, every 'evacuation' will result in hundreds of times the exposure than staying on the ground from all the radiation exposure that comes from an overseas flight.

There is no reason to evacuate our personnel, and every reason to help the Japanese people, at least help them find the bodies of the thousands who have presumably lost their life.

[Names Ash Housewares]

The measured radiation level data speaks for itself.
I think a lot of it is to avoid lawsuits.
It’s a lawyer’s world.

[Doe Eyes]

all American military personnel and their families from the areas of Japan threatened by radiation

Why wouldn't this be a no-brainer?

See post 5.

[Doofer]

I heard in the news that my old carrier the GW left Yokosuka in a hurry today as well.

I heard from a former co-worker in Yokosuka that all the ships there have pulled out.

[Ditto]

One of the great things about radiation is that we can measure, accurately, it in infinitesimal units. We can measure radiation that hits us from stars that are hundreds of light-years away. We can measure the radiation from the so-called 'Big Bang" that happened billions of years ago.

The bad thing about it is that level of accuracy about something that can't be seen, felt or heard is open ground for fear mongers, scheming politicians and technically illiterate media clowns looking for ratings to create panic simply because they can all make a buck off it.

Fear and panic are great profit opportunities.

[kingu]

Personally, I'm incredibly impressed with the design of these reactors. The spent fuel pools not as much, but all in all, a complete station blackout after a 9.0 earthquake and a 8 meter tall tsunami, the plants dropped offline, and even without coolant, none of the expected horror stories have panned out in the slightest bit.

But then again, the most strident doom-mongers are the same old anti-nuclear crowd as always, working to drum up the level of fear for their own political gain, because heaven help us if they don't have a tragedy to usurp and exploit.

[FreedomPoster]

Unfortunately, several of those strident doom-mongers are here at FR.

Kudos to the Japanese atomjacks, and here’s hoping they continue to effect improvement in the very serious situation at Daiichi.

[Flavius]

I thought radiation was good for us.

[phormer phrog phlyer]

Already happening to dependents, a bud’s family arrived back in the US yesterday, they were told to leave.

[douginthearmy]

It’s a lawyer’s world.

There are more lawyers in ny/dc than the rest of the world combined. Let's not accuse the world of our manias.

[Freddd]

‘The winds threaten to dump as much radioactivity in the next 24 hours as in the preceding 10 days’

Not a threat according to ‘engineers’ etc on here...