1. The blast cannot reach many underground targets.
2. Because the missiles do not bore so deeply as many presume, the radioactive cloud could spread as much as one thousand miles. Three million people may be killed, while another thirty million will be at increased risk of cancer. The victims will be Iranians (the ones we suposedly hope to liberate), Afghans (the ones we supposedly liberated), Pakistanis (our supposed ally) and Indians (another ally).
3. Using nukes on a chemical weapons cache will spread toxic gasses, thereby increasing the death toll.
And why does Bush propose to use commit genocide? To prevent Iran -- a country which has never attacked us or any of our allies -- from acquiring nukes. Iran cannot be trusted with nukes. Bush can. Or so we are told.
You've heard a lot of hooey about Iran being "16 days" away from producing a nuclear bomb. Here's the truth, according to Juan Cole:
Despite all the sloppy and inaccurate headlines about Iran "going nuclear," the fact is that all President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday was that it had enriched uranium to a measely 3.5 percent, using a bank of 180 centrifuges hooked up so that they "cascade."America, fueled by religious hatred, will soon commit the greatest atrocity the world has seen since the Third Reich. Every decent human being in this country must spend at least some part of every day trying to prevent the coming catastrophe.
The ability to slightly enrich uranium is not the same as the ability to build a bomb. For the latter, you need at least 80% enrichment, which in turn would require about 16,000 small centrifuges hooked up to cascade. Iran does not have 16,000 centrifuges. It seems to have 180. Iran is a good ten years away from having a bomb, and since its leaders, including Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei, say they do not want an atomic bomb because it is Islamically immoral, you have to wonder if they will ever have a bomb.
The crisis is not one of nuclear enrichment, a low-level attainment that does not necessarily lead to having a bomb. Even if Iran had a bomb, it is hard to see how they could be more dangerous than Communist China, which has lots of such bombs, and whose Walmart stores are a clever ruse to wipe out the middle class American family through funneling in cheaply made Chinese goods.
8 comments:
Bush will exceed Hitler in his actions
I heard Condi on Hannity today, opining that there's been lots of wild speculation lately in the Beltway, but that the President must keep all options on the table.
Meaning, of course, that he must reserve the right to use nuclear weapons against Iran.
And, I'm thinking, why? I mean, really, why? Whatever happened to the concept of "unthinkable?"
I wish I could find reason to hope you are wrong, Joe, but let's face it, this administration can't stop testing the limits of its own perfidy and incompetence. Which means that sooner or later, they will do the "unthinkable," if we can't stop them in time.
When the radioactive dust settles, let's not forget the constituency that put this madman into power--the Christian fundamentalists. Let the blame fall on them. It has to fall somewhere.
The reality wars are coming.
Won't the fallout also devastate our troops in the region?
What Joe posted. While I have my doubts that Bush will actually get away with this--the chances that at least one detonation will take place don't get any smaller if the informed citizenry just sits around waiting for it to happen. So, let's not be among the lazy, hmmm? We've come to far as progressives for that.
I swear to God, these embarrassing typos in my comments are not my fault.
I hear you, Jen;same thing keeps happening to me.
Unirealist, this administration has made a habit of doing the unthinkable.
Now is not the time to give them the benefit of the doubt; doing so has never worked out before.
So Joe,
What would you suggest we spend a portion of our day doing to prevent this catastrophe? Write the President? Write our cowardly Democrat representatives who had ample evidence of Bush’s lies during the build up to the last war? Write another letter to our editor? Lots of luck. What exactly does one do to an administration with all the conscience of a Komodo dragon? How can we hope for a clarion call from a snowblind press? Answer: nothing. We must wait and watch and thank the gods that we do not live in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
I might also take a little bit of an issue in your assertion that “America…will soon commit the greatest atrocity the world has seen since the Third Reich”
I would put it another way: America will soon commit the greatest atrocity – since the last time it launched a nuclear strike on a largely civilian population.
I am so bored with my increasing apathy and impotence in the face of these self-righteous demons who are so intent on rendering the whole planet into an uninhabited wasteland as soon as possible.
I wish there was someone or something big enough to tie a can to this country and everyone in it – including me, good Goddamned German that I am!
Bboldt2
The fact that Rumsfeld is not resigning, despite widespread calls for it from inside the military, suggests that this plan is going forward: Bush isn't about the fire anyone who supports his messianic delusions, and who is no doubt a prime advocate for the action.
What's curious, both in the public mind and the MSM, is the notion that Bush can drop nuclear bombs on Iran without the consent of the people. And that the country is powerless to stop him.
And we call this democracy?
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