Just Curious If Anyone Else is Concerned About...

[Zach929rr]

War with Iran within the next few years, and along with that, the worry of Iran or any other hostile force detonating a low-earth nuclear device, above the US, that would generate an EMP wave that would knock out anything made after the 60's?

[modette99]

It would be low-earth orbit. That assumes they could even launch something to low earth orbit to knock the stuff out. Would they want too, I don't think they would.

A few Iranian friends in the know, their father is the one building the civilian nuclear power plant, they do have a true civilian one being built. However they also have a secret one being built by their military too, and not for peaceful purposes either. I've known this for a VERY long time, my two friends (both brothers) have been inside the civilian one (they are civil engineers). However my friends spend most there time moving money from Iran to other countries to protect the families wealth. They own a home in Toronto that I been too (at least $2 million), they know own property in CA...last I heard on that front they were investing in a $50 million dollar land just north of Golden Gate Bridge in CA. They also own a $900K+ apartment in Vienna.

From there own mouths, they WISH for Iran to change...they say when they go to Iran for them (because they have money) its like being int he US. If they want to drink they do, if they want to listen to banned music THEY DO. They say ALL of the young people want change, they all want the ayatollah out.

I remember them telling me a story of them being at a party in Tehran with Generals and other important people around the time we went into Iraq the 2nd time. It came up how long could their military hold off ours. Their General said they could only hold us back for 20 minutes maybe 30 minutes tops. All their gear is old, outdated, and POS.

I would think its the same now, probably why they want the bomb. Otherwise, we or anyone else could walk pretty much right in. Plus they know their people want change, so only the die-hards will stand and fight, it be Iraq all over again in how we walked right in.

Out of all the countries we been in lately, Iran should of been the number one to go into. However with how the economy is, I as an American can not support more money being spend. The most I would support is to say let Israel attack them, and maybe we lob some cruise missiles in to help. We should not put boots on the ground at all, our help should mainly be of gathering satellite Intel to make sure what Israel hits is destroyed.

[longrider]

I am not too worried about that. the military is pretty good at defending our airspace. I dont see any way to get something big enough into the proper position other than a foreign airplane or a missile and our defense systems will handle that

I will leave this part up to the scientists, but could they even create a powerful enough EMP to take out most of the country with one blast?

[TinkerinWstuff]

this is deep for a Monday

[Zach929rr]

Sure, Iran may or may not have true ICBM capabilities, but they don't really need range. What if it just got tucked into a freight vessel and wasn't launched until the ship is in the Gulf of Mexico? There would be no stopping that detonation, no matter how fast/good our air defense is.

Indeed, deep for a Monday.

@Paul, when the Ruskies were testing low-orbit detonations of nuclear devices some 50some years ago, it is widely reported that vehicles up to 1000 miles for the center of detonation were completely disabled due to the EMP wave. For the sake of argument, assume the same weight devices were detonated today.... damn near everything electronic from Denver to Atlanta, ocean to Canada, would be completely wiped out. That includes the estimated 1-3 million people traveling in the air, on life support, ICU, dialysis, etc would all die almost instantaneously.

[TinkerinWstuff]

what are you worried about? Gov't keeps saying our borders are secure

to be safe I suppose I better add an old Norton to my doomsday stash

[laspariahs]

I am completely unconcerned with a war with Iran. You would have to be completely retarded to go to war with Iran, especially at this moment in time.

If you have looked at states that have struggled to get nukes, it stabilizes them when they get them. Anyone remember when everyone thought Armageddon was just around the corner when India and Pakistan got nukes, OMG WWIII!!! Yeah..... Same with N. Korea, whens the last time you heard about them.

Nukes are a stabilizing force for a few reasons:

1. We can no longer push them around, they no longer feel threatened. We treat nuclear powers differently than other states.

2. The big 5 now see them as a force, and work to stabilize them. We go from trying to hurt them, to trying to help them overnight. The big 5 see nuclear powers differently than other states.

3. They don't want to die, they don't want everyone they know and love to die. Nuclear war isn't an option, unless you are completely crazy. And as I have proven above, even the craziest of crazies don't use their nukes: India V. Pakistan. Once India and Pakistan got nukes, all the sudden that piece of land they have been fighting over for the last 1000 years, didn't seem worth it anymore. Peace broke out.

[modette99]

3. They don't want to die, they don't want everyone they know and love to die. Nuclear war isn't an option, unless you are completely crazy. And as I have proven above, even the craziest of crazies don't use their nukes: India V. Pakistan. Once India and Pakistan got nukes, all the sudden that piece of land they have been fighting over for the last 1000 years, didn't seem worth it anymore. Peace broke out.


Yep, because a launch would mean the end of any country, even Obama would HAVE to launch ours back meaning Iran who even if they had a few missiles would be wiped off the map for sure. Not to mention Israel would launch theirs (maybe we would not launch as Israel would have enough to wipe Iran off the map by themselves). Plus any country that launched first no other country would be okay with that and go along with that.

At the end of the day, would a little guy given the order actually turn that key!!! Some would, but a lot would not. Everyone knows what the end result would be, hence why Russia never launched on us and we never launched on them.

If anything Israel will just destroy the Iranian plants. Setting them back another 10+ years.

[TFOGGuys]

Ummm...Pakistan is about as stable as a man jumping on a pogo stick, balanced on a beachball.

[laspariahs]

Ummm...Pakistan is about as stable as a man jumping on a pogo stick, balanced on a beachball.

I didn't say it made them stable, but it helped stabilize them.

Their polity score has gone to the better since getting nukes, same for India, N. Korea, Etc.

[stitch]

ICBM from Iran, no way. Not only do they not really have the capability (contrary to what they say) but we have a number of airspace defenses here in the states for just that sort of thing. We would have a number of different opportunities to shoot down anything either in the air or space on its way to this country. Iran might have 10 total ICBMs that might reach us. That small a number we can easily send up a couple of F-15s with interceptor missiles to shoot down any threat. Then we have land based interceptor missiles and I believe we even have a DEW coming soon (The YAL-1A Airborne Laser System). Then on the ground we have the MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3. We saw these work (for the most part in the Gulf). Then finally we have the Navy's Aegis system

I would be (and I am) more concerned about the threat of something being hand delivered through the borders. We've already seen highly radioactive shipping containers try to test our defenses at shipping ports. There are also alerts of aircraft being used as Trojan horses to fly into a major city and detonating a bomb over head same thing with a boat through a local harbor. Could easily put a nuke on a sail boat and sail it right into the heart of New York City, Baltimore MD or even Washington DC all have harbors which come right into the city well inside the blast radius of a small nuke. Not really something to worry about here in landlocked Colorado though.

[salsashark]

I'm not so concerned with Iran launching against the US. What concerns me is that Isreal has said numerous times that they will not allow Iran to be a nuclear power... and I believe them.

Further more, Russia has come to the defense of Iran saying that any military strike by Isreal would be a bad idea. Where does that leave the US? Of course, siding with Isreal.

ahhh global saber rattling... gotta love it.

I was thinking about this subject this morning, but too caffeine deprived to respond, then I came across this.

Russia: Israeli threat of strikes on Iran 'a mistake' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15617657)

[stubbicatt]

The best we could do to destabilize that country would be to lift all sanctions, and import every single automobile we can produce to that place. Soon, they would build factories and whatnot to build the automobiles under license, employ 100,000 Iranians to build them, and then we just close down the factories.

Those people are crazy for american goods. Sell the crap out of our stuff to them.

Massive unemployment.

[Hibs]

Am I worried about Iran? Sure... there's a reason why I volunteered to go to language school and learn Persian-Farsi. It will be good job security for my career that's for damn sure.