How would the United States respond to a nuclear terrorist attack if we do not know who is responsible?

Question

How would we know were to hit back?

Answer 1

Eliminate all doubt "Nuke 'em all"

Answer 2

If the attack was delivered in a clandestine, cargo-cylinder "Sum of All Fears" way...it would be hard to determine who actually lit the fuse. It could take anywhere between six days to six years for forensic experts, detectives, radiation experts etc. to deduce where the weapon came from and who may have used it. It wouldnt be very hard though if the attack came from Al-Qaida or any affiliated terror organization, since like in 9/11 they will probably claim responsibility as soon as possible to get more media mileage. An appropriate response (for me) would be to raise the bounty on Osama's head and send assassins throughout the world to find the other cohorts. A missile attack would be much easier both in deducting who did it (the country of origin) and in making the appropriate response (assasinate their leaders, impose sanctions on the country, invade it and/or nuke that country into a damn parking lot [not necessarily in that order], whichever fits the Americans' mood).

Answer 3

i assume you're taking about a nontraceable, cargo container type of nuclear attack. there would always be a list of the usual suspects. if our leadership could not determine who exactly lit the fuse, well then we would always have the option of looking down the the list for a country that we always wanted to visit a regime change policy upon and it would all come out in the wash in the end. someplace would have to be hit with conventional weapons, the American people (tend to always) demand revenge that way. invading an actual country would depend on how the actual president at the time felt personally offended by that 'threat'.

Answer 4

Probably the same way they responded to the attack on the World Trade Center towers. Bush would continue to read books to third-graders, and then we'd get 'tough' by taking a typical proactive response and use a hit-and-miss method of trying to punish whoever we believe the enemies to be. -RKO-

Answer 5

that's in ordinary words one faith that is inflicting those styles of issues and that's not the Amish.. omit Deme, provide it a relax..Northern eire is a piss undesirable evaluation to make, for one which is a lot extra political than that is religious. nor are they taking it to the global reaches Islam has for the awesome 1300 years. .And your Africa celebration is purely as undesirable..thinking the actual incontrovertible truth that that's Islam specially inflicting the unrest from Nigeria to the Sudan... give up whining about Christians already..you've managed to stay among all of them your existence..And no individual yet has compelled you to 'persist with Jesus" at swordpoint...

Answer 6

Because of what direction the missile came from, the process of elimination (which of our enemies had nukes when we got hit) and assessing the type of technology used.

Answer 7

North Korea and Iran-possible simultaniously

Answer 8

WELL WERE ARE WINING MORE AND MORE ENEMIES MORE AND MORE MAYBE AMERICA WILL BECOME OUR ENEMY TO IF WE KEEP LOOKING THE SAME WAY TO ALL THE PEOPLE AND CALLING CRIMINALS TO ANY BODY ONLY BECAUSE WE THINK IS RIGHT, WE ARE DOING A GOOD JOB IN ORDER TO BE HATE BY THE REST OF THE WORLD. OR MAYBE THEY DO ALL READY.

Answer 9

The residue from the explosion(s) will indicate where the plutonium was mined and enriched. That'd be a good start.

Answer 10

If you don't know who is responsible you can't respond intelligently.

You can't nuke the whole world.

Answer 11

I think America would nuke every Arab country in the world.