At 13:01 07-01-2003 -0600, Ronn Blankenship wrote:
In that particular case, the US will not be able to immediately retaliate, but I'm confident that the world's Intelligence Agencies will eventually find out which country was behind the attack, after which the US will undoubtedly strike back hard.What if they bring it into a US coastal city in the cargo hold of an ocean freighter, and detonate it there, or perhaps bring it into another country on the American continent by ship and then load it on a truck and drive it across the border to the target city (ala _The Sum of All Fears_--the book, that is, not necessarily the movie, which bore little resemblance to the book except the title . . . ). Against whom would the US "immediately retaliate" in one of those cases?I don't think a nuclear attack will happen. Using conventional explosives is much easier and cheaper for terrorist organisations, and no country is going to launch a nuclear missile against the US because they know the US will retaliate immediately -- such a strike would only lead to their own destruction. Dictators like Saddam Hussein may be crazy, but they are not stupid.
(Note that I used the phrase "immediately retaliate" specifically in relation to the launching of a nuclear missile -- something that can not be done undetected.)
Jeroen "No Nukes" van Baardwijk
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