Could the U.S.A. survive a nuclear attack?

I have been reading about the United States missle defense plan and how it is under developed and has had lackluster results so far.
This got me to wondering that if in the event of an actual nuclear war would america even stand a chance for survival, Im referring ofcourse the civil public.

I know they still sale bomb shelters but honestly who has one in thier backyard anymore? Would air raid sirens even sound, if an emergency broadcast came on television would people even know what to do, do we as citizens even have an emergency plan to escape to safety or will forty years of complacency catch up with us?

This has been on my mind and I dont know if anyone has ever posted on this topic so im curious to know if Americans actually have a plan of action
in case of such an event, or do only politicians have a plan for themselves?

I have read on several occasions that the United States has been close to nuclear war a number of times with in the past 30 years.

so with all the nervous tension over nukes between countries like Russia, N. Korea and possibly Iran it seems entirely plausable to me that someone at some point is going to "drop the ball" and everyone will lose.

Remember this?



The shelter consisted of ropes and a hard-hat. We have never been ready.

reply to post by pluckynoonez

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Touché, indeed I guess we really have not been ready. though I found a site that offers what i can only figure to be high end bomb shelters though I onestly dont know who could afford them.

Im only 30 years old so I dont know to much about the cold war nuclear close calls and all the propaganda that went into alerting the public to be prepared, but i have allways found it an interesting topc.

reply to post by snowen20

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Guide to the plans,shows attacks on us and russian cities and other target databases.

nrdc.org...

My opinion. Couple of cities, ground detonations, not diverse emp, any country would be injured severely, the U.S. being no exception, but I think it'd recover. Nuclear War? Nobody survives, globally, in the sense that nothing is ever close to the same again within several generations. I'm reminded of the Einstein quote along these lines regarding WWIII.

I don't mind admitting that I pray for it to not be so, not in my lifetime, not in yours, not in anyone's.

Agreeable, i honestly dont know about an all out nuclear war, nor do i think that many counties outside of russia have the ability to declare Total War. I find it far more likey and feasible for a terrorist whoever they are to sneak in a nuke or use a nuke that is allready here.

But like I said America seems to be so up tight when it comes to above ground nuclear explosions along with several other countries, would it not possibly trigger a nuclear response to any number of potential enemies if someone detonated a nuke in say New York or L.A. ?

Or does NORAD only look for missle launch?

reply to post by alienstar

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Thanks Alienstar, it looks like the nuke thing is really about cold war habits dying hard. But why still spend so much money on a missle defense plan? I know that through the late 90s and into 2002 we were that is to say the Americans were spending vast amounts of cash to build such a defense system, I have been looking in the wrong place I guess but i dont know if America is still spending or not.

Has the missle defense budget been quietly swept under the table or what?

They can spot radiation,launches,explosions,all airtraffic etc.The us would not survive a all out nuclear attack.They create holes 300 feet deep on impact site and the shockwave radius is for like 20 miles along with high levels of heat...and along with the explosion,all electronics would be exposed to the emp's and fallout.the list goes on.

They still sit on over 500 land based minuteman III's icmb's in over 4 locations with single warheads.Not to mention 336 Poseidon missiles for the subs,24 on each sub.Also b2 and b52 cruise missiles...the list goes on.My figures could be off.They change every year.

[edit on 27-6-2008 by alienstar]

I dont know much about the missile defense shield.I know they have it up in Alaska parts of Canada..will be moving into Europe.Here a good read on it.I think maybe with some of the technology yes.As far spending seems to be going vastly into black budget.

www.fas.org...

[edit on 27-6-2008 by alienstar]

Well I must say I got my answer rather quickly and it is good to know that I truly can kiss my #@# goodbye, a good sense of closure

I guess what I mean though in survive a nuclear attack and i didnt really make this clear in my first post thats my mistake, but finacially could the states recover from an attack even a nuclear based ground attack by any terrorist organization.
How would it effect ties with other coutries and judging from the reaction after 9/11, who would the US target for reprisal, and how would they retaliate? I guess surviving a nuclear attack has alot to do with your moves as a player in the game.

If someone can answer this question then everything will be complete case closed. thanks.
snowen

Some people might survive the attack such as key role players deep underground like president,senators,top military officials,congress etc.Would we be able to come back?Financially the us economy was be ruined to far to come back.Would be rather stone aged times.

Crops would be devastated as radiation sinks deep into the ground.All cattle as in beef dairy,poultry gone.Fish and drinking water contaminated.There would be nada.Nuclear winter would be unimaginable.

The most probable nuclear strike will come from terrorists. I don't remember his name, but the man who arranged all the financing for 9/11 and many other attacks is in the U.S. and has said that he is planning nuclear attacks on 7 major U.S. cities. As far as the nukes go the gov. was stupid enough (or wants them to get the stuff) to advertise on tv that the material was stored in low security facilities. Surviving that type of attack financially would be hard, but it is possible. A conventional nuke attack would screw us, we would never recover.

[edit on 28-6-2008 by Anuubis]

As fractured as your nation is, I do not know if the survival of the USA is possible -- especially if it isn't desirable to many citizens.

I think the real question is "Would humanity survive a nuclear strike on the USA?" And for much of the northern hemisphere of Earth, the answer would be 'No. Humanity and animal life will not survive.'

No. As a political and civil entity, it is almost assured that the United States (or any other nation) would be destroyed in the event of a nuclear war. Undoubtedly, many people would actually survive it, particularly in 'flyover' territory, but with the communications and travel infrastructure all but completely destroyed, there would be nothing left of the national identity we currently have.

Could it be rebuilt? Certainly, but it would take, at minimum, a number of years, but more likely, several decades to even approach the level it once was.

reply to post by snowen20

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Not so fast there snowen. Please do not underestimate the missle defense capabilities of the United States. This is just the stuff that gets cleared for you to view through your favorite Mass Media outlet. Betcha I'm right when I say "This is the basic defense arsenal"

Read it here: www.earthtimes.org...




Becker

[edit on 28-6-2008 by Becker44]

Survival is relative.

A terrorist attack, without a doubt, the country would survive. A full fledged war. The whole world would be in debate as a civilized society, but people would survive.

Full fledged war. The USA is a big place. Not everyone would would have radiation or blast damage, regardless of what people think. It would depend on luck and weather driven winds. Large cities would be destroyed for the most part. Count on multiple warheads per city. There may be some off target or fail, but some will work. Even this would be survivable if you were outside the blast zone and were able to get to a prepared area for this event. Forget the civil defense shelters in buildings, these haven't been maintained for years. You would need to bring your own food, water, etc; but then you would have no way of measuring radiation. It would just be a bad day running into many bad days. Expect no help at all from outside the USA, these other countries are either destroyed or staying totally out of any action that makes them look like an ally for either side.

Terrorist attack. Local event only with global results. The USA would absolutely go ape sh*t and cause somewhere to glow at night. It wouldn't matter if we were right or wrong, some country and their inhabitants are just going to die. The economy would be destroyed by this type of attack, but would recover in a few months. Resulting laws would be in effect for years. What we have today, in America, would be termed the golden era in the next generation.

Either option is bad.

If we had a full blown nuclear strike from the 1980s from then the Soviet Union thats 20000 warheads we are talking.There is noway anyone survives that one.Let alone even norad cant withstand a head on,single nuclear strike.

[edit on 28-6-2008 by alienstar]

i remember when bush first proposed that stuff, alot of people told him flat out it wouldn't work. i have family that was in the military and they said the same thing. it all had to do with the logistics of the situation, though. so i can't explain it but...yeah...no. not if thats all the defense we have. and if a nuke hit a major city, most surronding areas wold be messed up.

[edit on 28-6-2008 by AgnosticX]