I think it’s relatively obvious that this isn’t the kind of thing that public representatives should carelessly spout off. However, what it really comes down to is this: If someone wants to start an uncontrolled fission reaction in a major US city, and the required materials are the size and weight of an overstuffed checked suitcase, what can we do to stop them?
How do you find that suitcase in New York City? Imagine this. Imagine that someone tells you that they have hidden a suitcase in New York, New York. They tell you it’s about 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot. Then they tell you that you have a week to find it. New York’s a pretty big and complex place.
Could you do it?
Could the NYPD do it?
What if they don’t tell you where it is? What if they just tell you it’s in a major city? Or, what if they don’t tell you at all?
What do you do when nobody finds it, and hundreds of blocks of one of the biggest cities in the world become a massive hole in the ground?
I don’t think the threat of nuking Mecca would help. Don’t think I’m suggesting that. It might even make it worse. The magnitude of the problem here is nigh on to insurmountable. I know that a lot of clever people… okay, a few clever people (at last check I had about 14 readers) read my blog. What would you suggest?
(the answer is always love)
This post is a little disconcerting seeing as how I live in the middle of Manhattan. Riding the subway on the morning of the London subway bombings was hard enough.
If a Republican wants to nuke anything, that’s fine by me 😉
The problem is, if we nuke Mecca (aside from ethical issues) a bunch of Muslims who didn’t hate us before then do, producing at least a few more terrorists. I think it would make things worse.
The whole problem with people who aren’t attacking on behalf of a nation but an idealogy is that defeating them is like trying to win at chess when your opponent has no king.
Mecca is equivolant to a religion’s king, but I’m pretty sure that the terrorist people might not be willing to accept that.
I have an unrealistic hope that perhaps we can stop doing whatever it is that pisses them off. I know it isn’t that they hate freedom (anymore than Bush has decreased “terror” by fighting a war against it). I think it has something to do with us arming dictators in the cold war, and turning a blind eye to the war crimes our allies commit in our name while denouncing those of our enemies. I’m not sure it would work, and I’m sure our economy would suffer if we stopped using neo colonialism and endorsing brutal dictators, but I think maybe the world would have less terror in it.