Nuclear Attack- A Worst Case Reality?
I saw the author of this piece a few weeks back at an event hosted by the Columbus Council on World Affairs. He gave an excellent presentation. In fact, I wrote a letter to the Columbus Dispatch that was published online as a result. Dr. Allison is articulate and convincing in outlining the fears of a nuclear attack. I suspect, his solutions are going to prove limited however. I believe we have entered to post non-proliferation age and that a new system of deterrence is irrevocably required. We can't put the genie in the bottle as I have mentioned in numerous other postings.
Here is my letter to the editor:
Nuclear terrorism
Thanks to the Columbus Council on World Affairs I was able to attend an invaluable lecture from arguably the leading expert on nuclear terrorism in the United States. This lecture was given by Dr. Graham Allison, a former Dean of the of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, an advisor to President Reagan's Secretary of Defense between 1985-87, and an Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Clinton.
His message was clear; everyone from our political leaders to each individual must be proactive in raising the awareness of this issue. The nuclear terrorist threat is very real with consequences that are enormous. A ten kiloton nuclear device exploded in downtown Columbus would kill everything instantly within one third a mile of where it is detonated and would completely destroy all buildings. Anyone within two thirds a mile of the detonation point would be fatally exposed to radiation with accompanying structural damage to all buildings approximating the damage caused in the Oklahoma City bombing. Fires would be rampant up to a mile from the detonation point.
For a map to see this visually, go to http://www.nuclearterror.org/blastmaps.html and enter your ZIP code. As Dr. Allison indicated, this action would be a "history changer." To contemplate the "Day After" is to realize that this nation would be fundamentally altered. Its time to confront this soberly by aggressively pursuing non-proliferation and by coming up with a strategy to deal with the world in case non-proliferation breaks down and "everyone" starts seeking to acquire this capacity.
Unfortunately, we are getting closer to the latter every single day, Iran and North Korea are merely the latest examples.
Greg R. Lawson, Columbus
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