Fear.

Post #12,943 by addison 10/11/01 2:35:11 PM Reply	Fear. That's the point. More appropriately, Terror. "Atomic", "Nuclear" are bugaboos that inflict fear far beyond their real force. Witness the debate about atomic bombing Japan - despite the fact the bombs did less damage than conventional raids. Over atomic plants, weaponry, etc. Other attacks would piss people off, hurt some, but they don't carrry the fear of "atomic", and even "cancer". Witness the anthrax scare - despite the fact its almost a zero probabity as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Addison
Post #12,946 by inthane-chan 10/11/01 2:40:35 PM Reply	What was really scary about Hiroshima/Nagasaki... ...wasn't that it caused less devestation than a conventional bombing raid, at least not for me. It was that ONE BOMB from ONE PLANE did all that, where to do that much damage you needed a whole wing of bombers with a full load. Now, take a whole wing of bombers equipped with a full load of atomic bombs... "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #12,978 by kmself 10/11/01 4:24:18 PM 10/11/01 5:10:18 PM Reply	Doolittle Jimmy Doolittle's [link\|http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/dtr.htm\|Tokyo raid] (come-uppance for Pearl -- we could strike back) was a one-way affair. Sixteen B-25s were launched from 800 miles out (from carriers, no less) to bomb Tokyo. That was 400 miles further out than initially planned, and the Chinese landing sites weren't attainable for most of the crews, many of whom bailed out or ditched their birds. It was a token raid, but to great psychological (and strategic) effect. The one plane, one bomb, nature of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki raids was significant, and plays into the survivors recollections. Many heard the plane but dismissed it without a thought -- what damage could one plane do? By contrast, the [link\|http://tvtokyo.com/Burning.html\|Tokyo firebombing] involved 300 aircraft. [Edit: comeuppance for Perl has yet to be extracted.] `-- Karsten M. Self [link\|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com\|kmself@ix.netcom.com] What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?` Edited by kmself Oct. 11, 2001, 05:10:18 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #12,985 by ben_tilly 10/11/01 4:38:30 PM Reply	Um, that is spelled "Pearl" Turnabout from my usual version of that spelling correction... Cheers, Ben
Post #12,993 by addison 10/11/01 4:49:14 PM Reply	To be fair.. (gotta pick the nits with WWII. :)) The one plane, one bomb, nature of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki raids was significant, and plays into the survivors recollections. Many heard the plane but dismissed it without a thought -- what damage could one plane do? If they say they only heard one - then they're wrong. :) There were 3, plus a weather scout. The first went a couple hours ahead, and reported on the weather (and other planes were scouting other areas, and then went back. (The plane debated weather to stick around for the "big bang" and decided to get back to a poker game instead). The Enola Gay was accompanied by 2 other B-29s, carrying instrumentation, and air-dropped instruments to measure and analyze the blast. They broke formation just before the Enola Gay dropped the bomb, so they were further back (in case the shock wave damaged the Enola Gay, etc). But since there were only 3, the all-clear in Hiroshima was sounding when the bomb did explode. Addison
Post #12,970 by ben_tilly 10/11/01 3:58:47 PM Reply	Exactly, fear It is not just that it is a bugaboo. Imagine if the material sent in the envelope was from a real nuke, and was therefore verifiably weapons grade. They could claim this, and this claim is readily verified from the observed radioactivity per unit weight. Now in point of fact, they might not be reasonably able to create a nice city-levelling explosion. But proof that they actually have a source of the necessary materials (the single biggest obstacle for the do it yourself approach to building nukes) would have tremendous impact. Cheers, Ben

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