Seventy years ago : "On Monday, August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000. Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6% severely damaged." - Hiroshima
"Little Boy," the aptly named 16 kiloton bomb that took out Hiroshima, was -- in comparison to the nuclear devices in the world's arsenals -- sort of a light field artillery shell. There was, at the time, a second bomb called "Fat Man." Weighing in at 21 kilotons it would put paid to Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. With the erasure of Nagasaki, the world was fresh out of nuclear weapons. It was only a temporary lapse. Today we've got about 25,000 of these little items of discipline scattered about.
The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated in the atmosphere was The Soviet Tsar Bomba , or "Big Ivan" which at 50 Megatons was very harmful to every living think on Novaya Zemlya Island (located above the arctic circle in the Arctic Sea) in October of 1971. Whatever else you might think about them, you can't deny those Soviets dreamed BIG dreams.
No matter what our political feelings, I believe we can all agree that the world is getting just a wee bit too hot for comfort these days, and I don't mean "Global Warming." I mean that people here and there about the globe are getting just a wee bit too hot under the collar. They seem to have forgotten just exactly what comes into play like the force of gravity when whole nations or peoples get really ticked off. Time to refresh our collective memories.
I think we need to have the people of the world focus like a laser on the table stakes of going beyond these little patty-cake wars we are currently diddling around with and look, really look, at what can actually happen with one little slip.
What we need to do this is: "The Live Demo." By this I mean we need to find a small island or deserted space somewhere on the planet and sacrifice it for the greater good by setting off one, just one, low-yield thermonuclear device in the atmosphere for all the world to see.
Think of "The Live Demo" as a remedial educational moment for the entire world; a kind of slap upside the head coupled with a large shout out of: "PAY ATTENTION!"
Go and read the article, including the comments.
I think a little demo on the Moon would be more fitting. It would demonstrate that we can deliver a warhead to any place of our choosing. It would make for quite a light show.
ReplyDeleteAnd no radiation to worry about.
DeleteYou don't need to wait for a nuke demonstration. Here is a recent recording of one in Yemen. It's a funny thing how the story did not get any press acknowledgement. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/05/29/how-israel-was-busted-nuking-yemen/
ReplyDeleteIt would not have the desired effect. We did a live demo of rocket artillery and attack helos in Bosnia to teach the locals to not mess with us. They took it as a marketing event and started placing orders.
ReplyDeleteAfter spending some time in the middle East, I'm convinced the irrational people that inhabit the area don't/can't understand reason. Possibly because the sun bakes their brains. Possibly because they are brainwashed by religion, or some combination thereof. Therefore, it would be a simple waste of a nuke and some land.
ReplyDelete