Most neutron bomb information is speculation as it is tightly classified. Israel is said to have a slew of Jericho missiles armed with them.

If North Korea decides to send its million man army toward Seoul, there would be an instant in time when a neutron bomb would decimate it.

Seoul lies just 30 miles south of the DMZ and, foolishly, the South Koreans have been aggressively expanding their real estate toward the DMZ after years of making the area off limits.

It is doubtful that North Korea would hesitate to use the neutron bomb if they develop one. They could hit Seoul with a bomb dropped from an airplane.

The point is that North Korea is a true basket case where commerce is on life support and millions of people are left to starve. Without its enormous army, it would be little more than a desperate, confused nest of bureaucrats cannibalizing one another.

In this age of PC war, we are supposed to destroy the tank but save the poor souls in the tank who are trying to kill us. Whether we would ever use the “Hiroshima” solution is the question.

I seriously doubt that anyone is much interested in sending armies into North Korea again to confront their huge army on their territory which they have been fortifying for 60 years.

Another alternative is send Jimmy Carter and Madeline Albright back to spread pixie dust.

The downside to sending a terrorist nuke or rouge country nuke by missile is
1) a missile has a return address
2) a missile launch takes preparation which can be noticed by human or satellite
3) a primitive missile is not accurate, most even break up on lift off
4) we might be able to shoot it down using conventional weapons
5) we can definitely shoot most incoming missiles down using nuclear weapons using 1970s technology if you don’t mind airborne nuclear explosions.
6) a missile costs real money. Box cutter are more in their budgets.

I suspect the defense contractors lusting for star wars money is driving most of the fears in combination with North Korea’s loud talking.

http://members.terracom.net/~vfwpost/Chapter-12.html

What surprised me when I read the story from the generals perspective was how close we came to an all out war. They were convinced that Kim il Sung was planning on “Going South” with his army, and basically decided that if it’s going to happen, then better to force the issue. Also an interesting perspective is how the military leaders blew off the politicians and did what had to be done..basically calling the bully’s bluff.

Again, we have an unstable totalitarian (From the same genetic pool) who does not seem to understand that free people,and Americans in particular, although civil in their ways to a fault, have their limits.

This brings me to the question that no one in the government or press seems to be asking or is willing to discuss…Just what will be our limits. If the next missile heads toward Hawaii, Alaska or Orange County California, what will be the response? Will the president order an in kind retaliation? Cruise missile attack (Clinton response), a full nuclear response before their missile returns to earth on north America?

To learn from the past, it seems we could save a lot of headaches and pretty much end this issue by just announcing (Plan A??), that next time the DPRK launches a missile in our direction, we shoot back 25 to 1, no questions asked. That’s simplistic, but sometimes bully’s need simple messages to understand the issues. Coy

I think you’re forgetting that these missiles (even if they work) don’t make it much past the West coast.

Well, that might comfort you and La Shawn, but not me over here on the WEST COAST!!! But I’m not worried yet, since they couldn’t even get the thing to Japan.

Still, I like the picture of NK as “that radioactive crater between SK and the rest of Asia.” It won’t be very long before there aren’t any civilians left there to kill, since KJI will have starved them all.

Didn’t you know ?

Terrorist Nukes down come on missiles.

They come by Shipping Container or at least by Beat up Datsun Pickup truck after Being delivered to the Coast of Canada or Mexico.

You wrote —

In times like these, I remember who I am in Christ. I don’t fear death per se, but I certainly don’t want to go out in a missile attack. If I do, I hope I’m at ground zero. However, I don’t get to decide those things.

Ah but indeed you do get to choose if you are at Ground Zero.

It is more likely that Ground Zero will be Manhattan, Port of NY, Ports In Virginia, Houston, Longbeach or Oakland CA, significant Capitol Cities or Icon Cities like Downtown Chicago or San Francisco, or major international Hub airports, or significant at least symbolically, military and or naval bases.

You choose to live, work, visit any of those and you are potentially at Ground Zero, Marshfield, Wisconsin, Macon Georgia, Wichita Falls Texas, Lafayette, Louisiana probably aren’t it.

and you will likely survive nuclear doomsday and have to live with the aftermath, if All-out then life returns to the Hobbsian view of mankinds primitive existance as “Tough, Brutish, and short”.

As a Christian, you may want to pray that you don’t have to face that kind of reality and be lucky enough to be killed then transported to heaven, (no stops in purgatory).

As a Christian, you may also pray That the President is successful in thwarting the Nuclear nut jobs for the rest of Humanity and so that the “Lord’s will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”

And as a Christian, I pray for courage to face whatever the Lord allows, may he never allow evil to visit us as it did JOB.

“I like Old Time Radio, especially the paranoid 1950s-era Sci Fi shows like X Minus One.”

Didn’t know X Minus One had its own website. Fantastic!

Used to listen this on NPR when I was in high school. I can still quote the opening from memory: “These are stories of the future, in which you’ll live in a million could-be years on a thousand maybe worlds…”

Major nostalgia flashback. Thanks!

From a recent article:

“Al Qaeda’s plan is to bring down the United States. Whoever is with al Qaeda, or behind al Qaeda, shares this objective. The idea is to wreck the U.S. economy, break up its military potential and leave it for the dogs. It must be emphasized that Islamic fanatics aren’t the only people on the planet who hate Americans and cheer the thought of America’s destruction. I receive emails every week from people who dream of America’s defeat. If these sentiments are the least indication, imagine the private sentiments of North Korean or Chinese or Russian leaders – who already possess untold numbers of WMDs…

In closing, let us review what should be obvious to everyone: When a weapon of mass destruction is created, you cannot make it go away. Governments will mass-produce the weapon. Terrorists will eventually acquire it. The proliferation of mass destruction weaponry resembles a form of cancer. It grows with time, promising grief to vital parts of the body (threatening the entire system). Experts have said, over and over, that it’s only a matter of time before weapons of mass destruction are used against American cities. And so it is time to face reality.

Or bury our heads in the sand.”

The whole article is quite sobering (as is much of Nyquist’s writing), especially to those who think we will just swat away at our enemies like flies with our big, technological flyswatter and that we have nothing to worry about beyond that.

Marko

Sounds like they’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m sure they’d have a safety lock if they put a nuke on one of those missiles, so it wouldn’t blow up on the launch pad and take them off the map. Still, you really don’t want an activated nuclear weapon within 35 seconds of your country – at least not if it’s anything like their missiles.