Slashdot Mirror
US Ability To Identify Source of Nuclear Weapons Decays
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times covers a report released by the National Research Council, which says the ability of the US to identify the source of a nuclear weapon used in a terrorist attack is fragile and eroding. The goals of the highly specialized detective work, known as nuclear attribution, is to clarify options for retaliation and to deter terrorists by letting them know that nuclear devices have fingerprints that atomic specialists can find and trace. 'Although US nuclear forensics capabilities are substantial and can be improved, right now they are fragile, under-resourced and, in some respects, deteriorating,' the report warns. 'Without strong leadership, careful planning and additional funds, these capabilities will decline.' The report calls on the federal government to take steps to strengthen its forensic capabilities and argues for the necessity of better planning, more robust budgets, clearer lines of authority and more realistic exercises."
Made perfect sense to me. Who is the only country to detonate a nuke in attack?
Hint: They are also the first country to detonate two nukes in a single attack.
Overkill much? The US was just pissed (like 9/11) that they got caught with their pants down at Pearl Harbour.
As opposed to a quarter of a million unarmed civilians (in the first 4 months afterwards)?
RE: The 40k - 150k dead civilians
Yes the rest of the world is acutely aware of the US's inability to shoot the enemy.
e.g. In the Gulf War, 24% of all US deaths were friendly fire.
Sure they would have surrendered. But we demanded an unconditional surrender, and until the bombs that was not going to happen. They were holding the pain of the invasion over our heads for terms. Keeping conquered territories, keeping military assets... but most importantly keeping control of their country. The number one concern of the regime is always, ultimately, the regime. It's the same thing here, in case you haven't noticed.
When your government goes that bat-shit crazy you can't complain when someone stands up and brings the pain to your doorstep. Too bad it's our government that is bat-shit crazy these days. Maybe if we hadn't spent the last 60 years treating the Middle East like our own personal bitch, we'd have a couple more skyscrapers and couple less wars. We thought there wouldn't be repercussions because we had such a bad-ass military... Japan thought a lot of things, too.