From my “Condensing and Consolidation” of OCS Military Manual*, regarding terrorists and terrorism:
Out of the 30 some odd pages, I gathered this information:
Our Government’s greatest fear is that “irregulars” (meaning non-government sanctioned or supported ‘troops’; e.g. terrorists), using “unconventional methods” (meaning something our Government has not anticipated nor counted on) will gain access to a nuclear launch site and launch a nuclear missile from somewhere in the world.
It does not matter where it launches from. From the United States is preferred (the Russians are much more jumpy on the trigger than we are, see _______ for more information on that.) Russian sites are more accessible (due to political / social insecurity, low pay grades, and demoralized troops) – and well China – China is China.
Wouldn’t matter. As long as the first one goes off, nuclear destruction is ensured, starting with ‘retaliatory’ launches which then escalate into all out nuclear war.
I had, of course, condensed all that down into one sentence military officers would understand. Goodbye humankind, hello new world – in about 3 or 4 thousand years as life takes new root and hold on this globe.
The second thing I got out of this manual was this:
The US Government will nuke its own territory to “preserve the American way”. Period.
What can you do about it? Nothing. I would advise simply praying using the “Serenity Prayer” – and accept that which you cannot change. Not unless you can get rid of all the nuclear weapons (or 95% of them, including tactical and ‘unlisted’ warheads (e.g. nuclear tipped cruise missiles.)
Good luck.
*http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nds/nds.pdf – while unable to locate the original manual given to me, this document pretty much says the same stuff. Condense and consolidate for yourself.
For ‘near incidents’ (if you can call WWIII a ‘near incident’), see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
Also see: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/10/5-times-we-almost-nuked-ourselves-by-accident
And realize: this are just a FEW of the times that we KNOW of (have been released to public domain – US only.) No telling how many other times we’ve had a ‘close call’.
Close your eyes and pray. And when you see that great big flash: kiss your ass goodbye.
