How to survive a nuclear missile attack.............
Discussion
klassiekerrally said:
But at least 'then' (I'm not that old, born in 1969) you knew who your 'enemy' was and where he lived.
Nowadays with terrorism and extremism it isn't that clear anymore.
That's ok then, live in fear that a nuke may strike and totally flatten London or your town (but hey at least you'd know who did it) or live in fear that the odd suicide bomber may try to blast a train... You can't put a price on life but I know which I'd choose.
A nuclear bomb is a little different from the odd suicide bomber. The only nuke used in vengence killed something like 66,000 people at Hiroshima out of a population of 255,000. By 1975 atomic technology had received another 30 years of development.....
9/11 killed approx 3000 - still tragic.
I'm not trying to devalue life whatsoever. There are a heck of a lot more people around now and I think statistically speaking the world for us is relatively safe. Of course we have a much more powerful media now.
I think the world was quite a dangerous place all through the Cold War with lots of incidents and wars which could have led to "Armageddon". None more so than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the world was right on the brink.
However, most of us just got on with our lives and didn't walk about worrying that tomorrow was going to be our last day.
As for terrorism, Britain has had to live with the fear of terrorism for almost 40 years - and despite horrendous attacks on the British mainland and, of course, Northern Ireland, the country has gone about its daily business without being paralysed by fear.
At the moment, the media and our governments seem to have a vested interest in whipping up a stste of fear - one to peddle their wares and the other to assume more control over our lives. We seem to be allowing this to happen. Even rather mundane events are being given over the top "doom and gloom" headlines. This morning, for instance, one of the newspapers has a headiine which literally takes up the ENTIRE front page. All it says is "-15 degrees". What? Is that worthy of a screaming headline? In 1987 the temperature here in Farnborough dropped to -15 one night and all it warranted was a casual mention from Michael Fish on next nights weather forecast.
Franklin Roosevelt said to the American public back in the 1930 - "We have nothing to fear except "fear" itself". How right he was.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 28th February 08:41
However, most of us just got on with our lives and didn't walk about worrying that tomorrow was going to be our last day.
As for terrorism, Britain has had to live with the fear of terrorism for almost 40 years - and despite horrendous attacks on the British mainland and, of course, Northern Ireland, the country has gone about its daily business without being paralysed by fear.
At the moment, the media and our governments seem to have a vested interest in whipping up a stste of fear - one to peddle their wares and the other to assume more control over our lives. We seem to be allowing this to happen. Even rather mundane events are being given over the top "doom and gloom" headlines. This morning, for instance, one of the newspapers has a headiine which literally takes up the ENTIRE front page. All it says is "-15 degrees". What? Is that worthy of a screaming headline? In 1987 the temperature here in Farnborough dropped to -15 one night and all it warranted was a casual mention from Michael Fish on next nights weather forecast.
Franklin Roosevelt said to the American public back in the 1930 - "We have nothing to fear except "fear" itself". How right he was.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 28th February 08:41
The two atombombs where thrown by our enemy America... Not that that makes it right...
Those atombombs in essence where all about threat, not about using.
Terrorism is all about blowing up things, destroying lives to cause terror.
And 'they' don't hesitate to do so.
At least the Americans and the Commies did (although it came close to total destruction once).
I don't wan't to go back to those times, but I think terrorism is much dirtier than the cold war.
Those atombombs in essence where all about threat, not about using.
Terrorism is all about blowing up things, destroying lives to cause terror.
And 'they' don't hesitate to do so.
At least the Americans and the Commies did (although it came close to total destruction once).
I don't wan't to go back to those times, but I think terrorism is much dirtier than the cold war.
Eric Mc said:
But terrorism is not a "new" threat. Just look at what has happened over the past 40 years - especially in Britain and Europe. The only "new" aspect to terrorism is that targets on the US mainland have been hit.
One might argue that suicide bombers are a new aspect as well though Eric.
Nick P said:
i remember being about 6 or 7 and feeling really upset whenever the news mentioned nuclear attack or russia.....i asked my mum if we were all going to die 
No, because TPTB knew what to do
.looking up the film Threads...
came accross this bit of trivia:
came accross this bit of trivia:
IMDB said:
Findings from the 1980 British Government exercise "Square Leg" were used as the basis for projecting the level of destruction and number of casualties in the movie. "Square Leg" was a government project that estimated what would happen in Britain in the event of an actual attack. It projected the mortality rate at 29 million, serious injuries at 7 million and short term survivors at 19 million.
Eric Mc said:
Suicide bombers do change the goalposts slightly - but so far Britain (and any other European country which has been a victim of terrorism) has suffered far more in the hands of conventional terrorists than this new breed.
>> Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 28th February 09:05
Oh, I absolutely agree with that, the gummint and the media's current scare tactice leave me entirely unmoved, it's all just H.L.Menckens politics of hobgoblins.
Remember kids, "Duck and Cover" and dont forget to close the curtains........
Shows the effects of nuclear blast and flash on a house....
Right click save as:
www.saintjoe.edu/~pfaff/nukpics/effct01a.mov
>> Edited by deltafox on Tuesday 28th February 09:21
Shows the effects of nuclear blast and flash on a house....
Right click save as:
www.saintjoe.edu/~pfaff/nukpics/effct01a.mov
>> Edited by deltafox on Tuesday 28th February 09:21
Eric Mc said:
Suicide bombers do change the goalposts slightly - but so far Britain (and any other European country which has been a victim of terrorism) has suffered far more in the hands of conventional terrorists than this new breed.
Aye, but this "new breed" has the potential to make the IRA look all nice and fluffy.
It's not just the suicide bombers that move the goalposts, however I would assert that they move them more than "slightly".
The mindset of Islamic terrorism shifts the goalposts in a way we never experienced with the likes of the IRA. Yes, it's fair to say that Britian & Europe has suffered their fair share of terrorism through the years, however I believe that the threat that we face now is an altogether different kettle of fish.
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