The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
So yes - a 1kt nuke is useless against them. The Iranians always knew a stand-off was likely and seem to have planned accordingly.
I also think there's a psychological threshold around 1kt. Under that you can argue - no matter how uconvincingly - that the bombing is tactical and not strategic. And some people will nod their heads and believe you, because for a semi-buried detonation, the radius of 1psi of overpressure - which means broken windows and not much more - will be localised to half a mile or so. (Fall-out remains a big problem. But they probably won't be thinking that far ahead.)
The higher the yield, the less believable that argument becomes. Once you get over 15kt you're into Hiroshima territory, way on the wrong side of the red line.
Anything over 100kt would be horrendous. I don't even want to think about the reaction to that.
My point was that any nuke-based plan has a fundamental flaw. If the US wants to say 'Look - tactical!' the bombing won't work. If it increases the yield, any pretense at 'tactical' soon disappears and it turns into a much more dangerous game.
The idea that they could get away with nuclear weapons as long as they are tactical is delusional.
The big weapon=strategic/small weapon=tactical is flawed anyway.
Any nuclear strike on Iran, no matter how small, will by definition be a strategic attack.
While a 300 Kt strike on the advancing red hordes in the Fulda gap (thank god those days are gone) might very well be tactical as long as it is not a first-use attack. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Legally the doctrine of pre-emption is already insane.
And from where I am all war is delusional. The fact that we're even discussing this reminds me - again - that we're all living on Planet Crazy.
Sorry, bad cold war joke.
Seriously, I can't see the citizens of major nations whose governments support the "war on terror" stomaching cooperation with a state which actively uses nuclear weapons, even "small" ones. Those governments would be under intense pressure to withdraw support and leave the Americans to fight their battle alone.
Idiot/Savant
by Frank Schnittger - Dec 18 16 comments
by gmoke - Jan 13 9 comments
by gmoke - Dec 22
by Oui - Jan 24
by Oui - Jan 22
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 19
by Oui - Jan 17
by Oui - Jan 16
by Oui - Jan 15
by Oui - Jan 151 comment
by Oui - Jan 14
by Oui - Jan 141 comment
by Oui - Jan 132 comments
by Oui - Jan 133 comments
by Oui - Jan 13
by gmoke - Jan 139 comments
by Oui - Jan 12
by Oui - Jan 122 comments