A-Bomb detonated? What would we do?
 

This is a question I started to think about today. For what reason, i have no idea, but here it is:

Lets imagine an atomic bomb was detonated in the center of a major American city. No one in the government or anyone who would give up this information knows who detonated the bomb. We do not know the motive behind the detonation. We also do not know the origin of the bomb. The bomb could be anything from an old russian bomb, to a newly created bomb from a country such as Iran or N. Korea, from one of our own allies, or even one of our own bombs - we don't know.

Now, other than the rescue efforts and such, what do you think the U.S. government would do in this situation? What do you think the average citizen would do? Would there be riots? Would there be a mass exodus from the U.S.? Would there be martial law? Would we mobilize to attack, and attack another country? If so, what country? Would we launch our own nuclear attack? Would the living envy the dead?

Use it as an excuse to invade a country not related to the explosion?

...Et voila.

If indeed this transpired under our current leadership.....I would fear for everyone on this planet. We would likely react in a shortsighted, vengeful retaliation on whomever our pathetic intel community decided was most likely to cower in fear. The destruction felt here would pale in comparison to the death and brutality we would inflict upon the world.
If history (recent) is any indication we would squander any chance at unification of nations, and instead bankrupt ourselves in a bravado showing of strength in the face of adversity. Most of Asia would be gone.

If this happened in say....Five years, perhaps there is a chance it would be a relatively constructive event when viewed in hindsight. Partially because it might scare everyone into cooperation to remove such a threat from recurrence. But it may also serve as a warning of the dangers we have been so stupidly creating for ourselves through ignorance, and political bullshit.

Or-


We could all just be incinerated in a flash of Balefire that rivals the sun.

Well, according to Tommy Franks' interview in "Cigar Afficionado" magazine 18 months ago, it would result in;

1: Declaration of Martial Law. The Constitution would be totally suspended.
2: Suspension of Habeas Corpus.
2a: Probable "dragnets" of Muslims similar to those following 9/11, but MUCH larger.
2b: Possible arrest of political dissidents ( of whatever stripe ).

Such actions would trigger a civil war in this country that would make Iraq look like a paintball game. 48 hours after any such event, the balloon would go up. Gauranteed.

World War III. (Even though we wouldn't know who did it, we'd still find a way to start it)

I think the general public reaction would hinge on what the general public believe the motive of the bomber to be.

I mean, I imagine that we all would collectively wet our pants. Those that were terribly fearful would run further into the hills of America or other countries in the hope that their flight into obscurity would protect them from further harm. Those that were terribly angry would embrace the retribution path that the American government (I believe regardless of who sits in the White House) would offer. Still others, I imagine, would see this as an opportunity to take advantage of the subsequent chaos like futhering their bank accounts by feeding off the fear of the American public.

As for America's response...Well, I find it hard to believe that someone could set off a bomb in a major city completely anonymous. Whether the government would want to share that information in hopes of calming the public or manipulate it to justify suspension of civil rights, The Constitution and the like would depend, in my opinion, on who's in charge.

In any event, it would take an almost herculean effort on the government and the public's part to avoid total chaos. So, given my current opinion of the government and the public at large, I don't have much faith that it would be handled well.

Martial law, Civil war, and WW3.

Why would it be a world war?

'world' usually indicates that several countries are involved in it, usually with a polarity towards one or the other alliance. NOT like in the 'world' series?

England, France, China, Russia, Germany. Would they be automatically involved or do their governments actually have a say in who they declare war with/against?
The US was quite good in keeping it's cool after 9-11 when most citizens were of a
mind to just smoke the entire persian gulf. How odd that none of them thought it would be Russia, even after having grown up through the cold war.

What was the public's reaction after Oklahoma? Don't you think it would make people want to see who it was first? What's the chances of disaffected Americans being the culprits using resources already in the US versus Arabic insurgents smuggling in their own weapon?

Automatically? No. It would take awhile to accumulate to a World War, but so did the first two. It was something like 2 yrs (IIRC) before the USA got into WWII.

The reason I say WWIII, is because our current president seems easily pressured into doing things. He'd retaliate regardless of if it was right or not. He'd think he was doing God's work probably. Of course, looking at it from his perspective, if all you care about or your primary goal is to keep this country together then starting a war (one you would likely retaliate with nukes, which would bring in many others) is probably the only way to keep a country together when chaos erupts. Otherwise we just fall apart.

There has to be a reason to have a country. When our more basic needs are met (look at Maslow's hierarchy) we may be more concerned about patriotism and such. But threaten our safety, which is one of our more basic needs-one that a powerful country primarily provides-and you no longer have a need for a country. People will look elsewhere, either a revolution or at least a new regime. So starting a war may be the only way to distract and focus attention. People will turn into a lynch mob on a bigger scale, only feeling better until the perceived threat is destroyed.

I lived through much of the 80s certain that a nuclear strike would occur. This was a vivid recurring nightmare for me...

If it were to happen today under the circumstances described above (i.e. no idea who did it or where it came from -- could have been an Amercian terrorist for example).

I would say for sure that Martial Law would result, if only for a little while.

The Admin would search desperately for a scapegoat (or true culprit) and find one regardless.

I wonder if America is a whole nation would survive? It would depend where it happend geographically. I could see some states succeeding in the chaos. Distancing themselves from the Administration where possible (California, Oregon and Seatle going it alone, Texas, Nevada and New Mexico says see ya y'all).

I see large corporations taking over the nation when the government finally bankrupts itself in a war to end all wars.

I'd face the cold and move up up up. I have a feeling that Nunavut would become a place of sudden interest...

I just heard a news report that scared me...N Korea has the ability to detonate nukes on a missle, right? Consider this technology falling into enemy (whoever...we made a few) hands, and an air detonation. This would completely neutralize all power grids, shutdown/burnout of electronics in the burst area, causing problems in rebuilding for years.

Just in case...I had a great time online with everyone!!

Soviet Russia had nukes for years...thus the cold war

as far as what would happen, it depends on the proximity to the blast. The area close to the city (those directly affected by the blast) would probably panic. Other large cities might panic as well, and cities/towns close to military targets would be afraid as well. Areas further away (small farm towns, places in the mountains, etc.) would be less affected. Some of the hard-to-reach places might not be affected at all.

This scenario draws on the experience of 9-11.

i think a more real fear that i have is North Korea detonating a nuke somewhere other than the US.......Japan for example.

they are a true threat at doing so IMO. image what would happen then. here, we'd have a known culprit, attacking one of our greatest ally's, in the heart of a very unstable area of the world.

WWIII would be certain.

I wouldn't say inevitable. There's always a chance of invasion and conquering without declaring war. :hmm:

As for N' Korea, a more intelligent move would be to park an old sub in the sea lanes between Taiwan and China and detonate a few nukes in it when US warships were near.

Everyone would get the blame, and everyone would have drawn their guns.

Martial Law would be temporarily declared, then I think that they would verify who done it, and go after them. It all depends, though.

I dont' think the government's stupid re gardless of how trigger happy you may think it is, even Bush. If terrorists stole a bomb from Russia it does us no good to invade Russia (especially if it's winter) because they aren't the perps.

I've got pretty good faith that we'd hit the right people, and chances are more people would join our side because hitting the US with an a-bomb is a pretty bad problem... I'm sure we'd pull out of the UN if people didn't help us, and most likely go into seclusion in the world, seal off our borders, etc.

I believe that the chances of not knowing where the fissile material came from are small.

If it comes from NK or Iran, expect a nuclear response.

If we can accurately determine that it was a terrorist group, expect a response like 9/11.

Any other response is to show weakness and invites another nuclear attack.

I'm iffy about a nuclear response. It's on the table, yes, but I think instead of it being nuclear we'd have fast hitting bombs (non-nuclear) all across every important chunk of Iran or North Korea there is, with the help of Israel, Britain, and any other country that's got its @#$% together. Minus those who say we deserve it, but they'll probably lose international standing if that were the case.

we'd solve global warming with a nuclear winter. As for myself, i'll be in my underground computer bunker with Cheney enjoying bacon.

But seriously: I highly doubt that such a weapon would come from any civilized government (ie w. europe, russia, china, india). If anything, its going to come from either a private group located in europe somewhere (they already have problems with underground societies plotting to blow stuff up) or be some half baked nation like N. Korea. As for our government, I suppose if it was a major city attacked we'd have marshal law for a while. But I am sure that the governmnet would do its best job to keep bloodthirsty americans from going nuts and going over to wherever ourselves (as in the spanish civil war of the 1930's) and fighting it out ourselves.

I don't mind if the rest of the world thinks that--it's probably the reason we haven't suffered a terrorist attack since 9/11.

Put another way, when is the last time you saw a terrorist attack the Chinese, or North Korea?

"Relatively constructive?" Even if it were detonated in Rochester?

I have a feeling that martial-law would come in effect, and the current US-goverment would take hard revenge.

I'm not really afraid of what Bush would do, but on the other hand..

Actually, there is a good book from the 1980's about what would happen to the US after a limited nuclear war with the soviets. The book is about a guy who is trying to travel what remains of the US aftewards. Its called Warday by Whitley Strieber, and I highly recommend it!

I don’t think we would be launching a retaliatory strike, at least not for a while. Our entire defense apparatus would be consumed trying to control the panic. Waves of people would be fleeing the major cities. Riots would break out. If it seemed terrorists were responsible Arab Americans would probably be lynched in the streets all across the nation. Martial law would be declared. Most likely we would have to recall significant force from over seas; we are already over taxed as it is. There would be no retaliation for a long time. Even once order was restored consider what we could be talking about. A tactical nuke like the ones Russia can’t account for could take out all of lower Manhattan. That is a huge chunk of our banking infrastructure not to mention the stock markets. The resulting depression would be like nothing that has ever been seen. Even when the domestic situation was handled we wouldn’t have the financial resources to do anything. It’s not the administration you should be worried about if this happens. It’s your neighbor.

Duck and Cover!

Can't the residue left from the blast be tested to see the chemical finger print from trace minerals to find where the uranium was mined?

I don't believe so.

Uranium must be heavily refined to get U236, so there are no trace minerals.

I do believe that you can do this with Plutonium, the differences being that Plutonium is created in a reactor along with several other elements which can help identify which reactor.

1) Blame someone. Anyone.

2) Curl up into a ball

3) For those not in a ball position, yes.

4) Nope. Riots and balls

5) Most certainly

6) Yup

6) Iran, Syria, NK in that order. Might as well take 'em all out

7) Yup. Total annihilation

8) What living. The new Axis of Evil will be ashes.

Who would be rebelling?

Unless it turned out the government itself triggered the bomb, most people would welcome it. We have rounded up the Japanese on the west coast for far less.

i would say drive toward the flash.
anything that would follow would be worse than the event itself, particularly, as was said above, if something on this order were to happen in the next 2 years.

there probably wouldnt be much traffic.

Unless we detonated the nuke ourselves, I dont see why people would be rioting. And as for a nuke on US soil sparking World War Three, no way. I think a more interesting question would be how World War 3 would be started. Part of the problem with WW2 was the allies policy of appeasement to Germany. Hitler could have been stopped when he invaded the Rhineland, he only needed to be opposed. So ruling out a Munich Conference, I think it will be a long while before such a major conflict. We could always have a good ol' fashion brawl with the Middle East, but I don't think that would be any different than now.

A fully modern nuclear weapon would entirely evaporate the city and the fallout would kill everything in a 100mi.x500mi. area (depending on the wind). I imagine some panic and rioting in the fallout area would occur. If we had any inkling of who was responsible I would expect their country to be vaporized, the response would be nuclear and tenfold what we experienced. We have so many nukes pointed at North Korea, it would cease to exist. If the bomb came from any muslim source, I would expect a kind of nuclear crusade against just about any muslim country. If China decided to back North Korea, you're talking about the age of the cockroach...

If a modern thermonuclear weapon were detonated in New York City, I expect that my reaction would be limited to drifting whatever direction the wind happened to be blowing at the moment.

Wasn't this situation already done in Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears? (The book, not the movie, I can't believe Clancy signed off on letting them rape his book).

War has changed. We're already in WWIII, it's just a war between religious extremism and the Western way of life.

It is happening all over the globe. There are very few countries that are not affected. Civilians on both sides are being killed. There are basically 2 different sides, with allies on both sides.

I think even if there were another, more conventional war it would be much different than WWII. It'd be a war of spirit, and propaganda. With global media and instant reporting it would be a war of morale.

It would be very interesting to see how the American Media would portray it.