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2012-02-15 Home Front: Politix

It looks like Pentagon is looking to do some major cuts in our nuclear weapons

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Posted by Delphi 2012-02-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 But both Russia + China feel they need extra Nukes vee the USA because of that certain "Other Guy" out there.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2012-02-15 00:16|| 2012-02-15 00:16|| Front Page Top

#2 Reminds me of LAST OF THE MOHICANS > COL. MUNRO as per SIEGE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY = "THE SITUATION IS HIS [Montcalm's] GUNS ARE BIGGER THAN MINE + HE HAS MORE OF THEM"!

Posted by JosephMendiola 2012-02-15 00:18|| 2012-02-15 00:18|| Front Page Top

#3 Well, if we actually used a few on a couple of the worlds miscreants, it'll be a useful downsizing.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-02-15 07:46|| 2012-02-15 07:46|| Front Page Top

#4 Fastest way to get rid of them would be to use them. But I am sure the whitehouse is trying to sell them to Iran.

Posted by airandee 2012-02-15 08:29|| 2012-02-15 08:29|| Front Page Top

#5 The US has a vital interest in preventing nuclear war anywhere in the northern hemisphere, for an odd reason: the jet stream.

For some reason, the northern hemisphere jet stream, in its circuit around the world, has a downdraft exhaust right over middle America. Right over our most prolific agricultural areas.

This was why we were adamant about passing the Atmospheric Test Ban treaty. Whenever the Russians popped an airburst over Novaya Zemlya, in a short period of time, strontium-90 would start showing up in cow milk in the Midwest.

And we soon discovered that even ground burst nukes sent fallout high enough to be picked up by the jet stream.

Were it not for this, the US would not have any personal stake if Israel decided to nuke every Muslim country in range.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-15 10:04|| 2012-02-15 10:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Moose, I grew up during the 50s and open air testing, to the east of the stuff by a day or two. Yeah, it dumped into the agricultural areas of America. We're all not mutants as Hollyweird would have you believe. Nukes were the 50s/60s Hollyweird's props just like MMGW or whatever is the political fear factor they're selling today.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-02-15 10:16|| 2012-02-15 10:16|| Front Page Top

#7 Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.

While eco-hysterics have tried to create a public panic about Sr-90 from nuke plants, the reality is that 99% of the Sr-90 still around is from Cold War testing. With a half-life of 28.5 years, that means a heck of a lot of Sr-90 was created and put into the atmosphere back then.

And would be again, were there to be a medium sized nuclear war.

A big problem with Sr-90 is detecting it, because it solely emits beta particles. But it is similar to the equally bad radioactive cesium in half life and medical effects, but cesium gives off gamma radiation, much easier to detect in the body. The two are often created together.

This means it is hard to tell if one child has a less than harmful amount, and another child will be very vulnerable to leukemia.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-15 11:49|| 2012-02-15 11:49|| Front Page Top

#8 The aerial application of agricultural chemicals and resulting diseases and chronic conditions in California alone likely make the radiation poisoning in the states associated with a few nukes in Iran via Israeli attacks a statistical joke in terms of effect.
I grew up in agribusiness and we messed with some serious shit.

I'm not all about casting radium and whatnot into the atmosphere, however the risk/reward calculation on our lives and health is made everyday by our corporate and govt masters and most could give a shit less, while everyone seems a concerned citizen against nuclear weapons.
In any case all of these are horrific choices for any parent of the countless children with leukemia/kidney disease/etc. etc. who either get nuked or are just exposed everyday by the shit we use to grow our food.
I hope Israel is not forced to use nukes, but our nuclear future looks very real from where I am sitting right now.

Posted by Ominous1 2012-02-15 12:51|| 2012-02-15 12:51|| Front Page Top

#9 Perhaps if our politics against R&D of new nuclear weapons were not so strong we would have pure fusion weapons by now with low radiation emission and our mass destruction would be efficient and localized enough to be used when ultimately necessary.
I dont know what neutrons do to you though, and with pure fusion you're just trading radiation for neutron exposure right?

Posted by Ominous1 2012-02-15 12:57|| 2012-02-15 12:57|| Front Page Top

#10 @#9

Isn't it neutron bombs that make human bodies evaporate but solid structures remain intact?

Posted by Kojack 2012-02-15 16:44|| 2012-02-15 16:44|| Front Page Top

#11 There's several things there. To start with, after the rush towards gigantic nuclear weapons ended with the Tsar Bomba, from that point, the emphasis was on making both smaller weapons, and tailoring yield.

One such is the neutron bomb, aka enhanced radiation weapon (ERW). Its purpose is to convert as much of the blast energy as possible into making high speed neutrons. Only its remnants, deposited directly beneath the airburst in a small area, are still highly radioactive, along with previously non-radioactive metal on the ground hit with so many neutrons that it has itself become somewhat radioactive.

A nuclear 155mm howitzer round blast area will only be radioactive for a few days before it returns to background levels.

Posted by Anonymoose 2012-02-15 17:03|| 2012-02-15 17:03|| Front Page Top

#12 And the Republicans said, "Ferget it."

Posted by trailing wife 2012-02-15 17:23|| 2012-02-15 17:23|| Front Page Top

#13 Let's remember two cities and their population are sitting where two nukes were field tested in 1945.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-02-15 17:38|| 2012-02-15 17:38|| Front Page Top

#14 Neutron radiation is ionizing radiation, i. e., it destroys tissue by ionizing atoms in the tissue. It won't make tissue disappear but will kill quickly if one is close but more slowly the further away one is.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2012-02-15 17:44|| 2012-02-15 17:44|| Front Page Top

#15 how many do you need in a world filled with cheaters, thugs and fools? Fewer than in a world with wealthy, deluded, suicidal religious fanatics.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-02-15 18:07|| 2012-02-15 18:07|| Front Page Top

#16 Fastest way to get rid of them would be to use them.

That was my reaction to the proposed $2.4 billion in aid to Pakistan. How about we "give" them $2.4 billion worth of nukes?

/Kidding. Give 'em to India.

Posted by RandomJD 2012-02-15 20:06|| 2012-02-15 20:06|| Front Page Top

#17 Looks like the GOP-Right agrees wid Colonel Munro...

To wit,

* NEWSMAX > REPUBLICANS DENOUNCE OBAMA NUCLEAR CUTS AS "RECKLESS LUNACY".

* TOPIX > ANALYSTS: OBAMA INCREASES BUDGET SPENDING [read, US Debt], UNILATERALLY DISARMS.

USA = No $$$ + No Guns [StratWeaps].

Lest we fergit, POTUS BILL CLINTON > "THE US MUST BE CONTROLLED/RESTRAINED" BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY - you know, our own Govt-Leaders.

D *** NG IT, DON'T YOU evr Ever EVER E-V-E-R EVAR! FORGET WHAT WE NEVER TOLD YOU!

Okay, well, iff you going to insist ...

Posted by JosephMendiola 2012-02-15 22:21|| 2012-02-15 22:21|| Front Page Top

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