question about nuclear bombs?

Question

my 8th grade social studies teacher said that if north korea or some other country launched a missile at us or had a plane come drop a bomb on us we wouldnt be able to do anything about it and would just perish.....this worried me alot... is this true????

Answer 1

ICBMs traveling at mach speeds will be hard to bring down and as seen in the 9'/11 attacks, commercial airlines will be hard to bring down until its too late. It's possible we could bring down a missile with our air defence system but we're dealing with probabilities, not a sure 100% defence system.

The chances are pretty low an ICBM can reach continental US in view of their poor testing last year. I wouldn't worry too much, i doubt NorKor believes in national suicide, as that would be the end result of any nuclear attack on the US.

Answer 2

Have your teacher produce a teaching certificate immediately. I think you have a fake. Oops forgot about liberal mindset. Your teacher probably is real. Too bad.
North Korea does not have the ability to launch such an attack. For 50 years the policy has been the MAD doctrine. That is we have so much fire power that if you launch on us then we will totally destroy your country. Mutal Assured Destruction has been the deterant. Of course, once the bomb has been dropped Spider-Man or Superman won't catch it. It will drop and probably detonate. Can a plane get into our air space? Not under normal circumstances but we've let our guard down in the last 15 years. Note how long it took to get fighters in the air during 9/11 and they were armed incorrectly.
China does not want to cease to exist and neither does Russia. North Korea is run by a nut case who knows what he is willing to accept. Radical Islam has no country to nuke and Iran has a president whos religion calls for Armegeddon to achieve heaven

Answer 3

No its not true Britain and the U.S have counter strike measures to deter a nuclear attack. You may have heard of the star wars program. This was a joint project between Britain and the U.S. It is a Satellite that can detect, track, and destroy a nuclear missile launched at us. Britain also have the trident missile, any nation launching a nuke at Britain and they will be met with 100 tridents heading there way. I'm sure the U.S have a similar missile.

Answer 4

Without revealing any secrets, it is acceptable to state that we have a good detection system. Considering conventional delivery methods only, it would be highly unlikely for any country to attack us with atomic weapons. That said, we thought it would be difficult for any enemy to launch an attack against the United States. Clearly, al-Qa'ida succeeded, albeit using asymmetric methods.

The secrets of atomic weaponry have sadly become "less secret" since the Manhattan Project. The likes of Pakistan's A.Q. Kahn have further spread the technology to undesirable states and groups. One can only imagine what horrors would have ravaged had one or more of the 9/11 planes been carrying even a crude device. Naturally, smuggling one on board considering the airport security--even the level that existed then--would have been close to impossible.

It should not be considered inconceivable that terrorist could acquire a nuclear weapon, smuggle it into the United States, or the territory of one of our partners, and detonate it.

On that point, your teacher is quite correct; we could do very little. Further, from a moral aspect, we would have great difficulty retaliating. Sovereign states are deterred from using nuclear weapons due to the principles of retaliation. The former Soviet Union knew that a nuclear attack would result in complete annihilation. Likewise, we knew we faced the same threat. Whether we like it or not, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept the peace.

Terrorists face no such restraints. They know we will not use nuclear weapons to attack a country that is largely innocent, even though the attacking terrorists came from that country. We will not kill millions of people based on the actions of a hand full within their populace.

Currently, terrorists have the tactical and operational upper hand, primarily consequent to our moral restraint.

We will find a way to combat terror without compromising our principles. If we do the latter, and commit murder in the name of justice, we have become terrorists ourselves. In such an instance, what are we fighting? Ourselves?

Answer 5

Your teacher is a fool. He or she shouldn't be teaching in the first place. No wonder the American education system is so low compared to other countries. Our teachers are teaching the kids nonsense, filling their heads with false rubbish.

N. Korea planes will be blasted out of the sky way before they reach our airspace. Same thing does for their missiles. We have counter attack measures that will take care of all of that.

Don't worry about what your teacher said. He is WRONG!! Sleep well tonight, and I recommend you tell your parents about what your teacher said. He or she should not be teaching.

Answer 6

Once they drop the bomb, we would pretty much be screwed. However, the good thing about being pretty much on your own continent is that you have plenty of open space to see things coming. They would never make it close enough to drop a bomb on us. Russia and China are our only rivals that I would give the benefit of the doubt that they could hit us with a nuke, but at the moment, they would be nuts to do so. North Korea isn't a direct threat. The biggest threat North Korea poses is that they may sell the nukes to terrorists that will sneak them into our country to blow.

Answer 7

No, not really. We have nulear capable submarines stationed all across the globe in strategic locations waiting for such an event so they can launch their missiles and take out the offending country. The only people that are helpless are those in the immediate anticipated blast area, they cannot get away fast enough and would be vaporized.

Answer 8

even however nuclear bombs are truly valuable , a single bomb say dropped on birmingham might in simple terms destroy the centre of birmingham with the preliminary blast, and then the increasing marvel wave and finished out ought to reason extra harm out into the suburbs, with a restricting blast area of countless sq. miles. although if a hydrogen bomb have been for use the the blast area may be countless situations extra suitable nevertheless . I look to recollect examining a armed forces assessment of in simple terms what number nuclear bombs it would take to totally destroy the full uk,, it became out the the russians theory that a mix of fifty hydrogen bombs and elementary nuclear bombs may be extra suitable than adequate to tutor the full uk in to a burning cinder.

Answer 9

If they launched just one we could take it out. We do have a limited missile defense. As far as no being able to do anything about that is a lie. As soon as we tracked the missile back to wherever one of our Ohio class subs will launch 24 reasons on why they should not have done that.

Answer 10

Total bullsh...t. The N. Koreans couldn't get a plane within 500 miles of the USA and they don't have a missle that will reach either. We are watching them closely and staging anti-missle defense ships near them to protect Japan when ever we see them gearing up to launch anything.

Your teacher needs to get her facts straight. America is always watching.

Ret. USAF SNCO, Old Cobra Ball and Cobra Dane guy from Shemya Alaska