If a Nuclear bomb were dropped....

[dyresand]

Depends on the country if they are from the middle east we would either invade them or nuke the fuck outta them.
That's just saying not to mention how would they get nukes.. Another depends on who did the action. Not to many
countries i could think of and if North Korea were to pull that type of shit his own people wouldn't follow through with it
they are free like they wouldn't do what kim jong un wants.

[Anomalocaris]

It's not so much a contradiction as it is bad phrasing. I was continuing an earlier thought and didn't separate it from the random terrorist group line of thought. My bad.

The fact that there's a black market for certain materials doesn't mean it's not governments who are buying them. It's still quite a stretch to think a random group of people could both acquire and/or make atomic weaponry on their own.

Acquiring might well be possible.  Making is probably off the table, sure. And dirty bombs which have, ahem, fallout penetrating the DNA is another thing.

What America does with a nuclear attack on New York City is entirely dependant on the actors and circumstances, was my point. But our government will certainly strike at the first available target. It's the American Way.

Keep in mind the random group of people would likely have to test a weapon to make sure something like it would work.  This hold even for acquired rather than built weapons.   It does not seem likely a technically limited group could achieve high probability of a home made nuke actually detonating properly.  North Korea, with the resources of an entire totalitarian state, didn't quite achieve a fully successful detonation on its first try.  Even a acquired nuke would have safeguard against accidental detonation.   There is no garranty a third party trying to set it off can actually cause it to detonate properly without testing the process a few times.

Any test would instantly alert every major nation in the world.

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

[Minimalist]

We'd go batshit crazy.  Just like 9-11.

Somehow I think it would be a little bigger then that. Do you think there would be nuclear retaliation and against who?

I don't think we'd nuke Mecca, if that's what you're getting at.

[Angrboda]

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

And Osama just got lucky when he flew planes into the twin towers. People do get lucky.

[dyresand]

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

And Osama just got lucky when he flew planes into the twin towers.  People do get lucky.

Yeah.. he flew planes we dropped bombs and artillery shells etc.

[Napoléon]

That's what happened when a single building went down. I'd imagine a more extreme reaction from a whole city being destroyed.

Um no. It was two skyscrapers, the Pentagon and heroes on a single airplane who cause that plane to go down in a field in Pennsylvania, rather than at the terrorists target.
We lost thousands that day, please get it right. It was so much MORE than a single building.

Still not even in the same league as an entire city being wiped off the map with a nuke, which was Capn's point.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Hopefully the right people will represent America if that scenario ever plays out.

lol, as if there are any right people, and as if any government listens to them.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Acquiring might well be possible.  Making is probably off the table, sure. And dirty bombs which have, ahem, fallout penetrating the DNA is another thing.

What America does with a nuclear attack on New York City is entirely dependant on the actors and circumstances, was my point. But our government will certainly strike at the first available target. It's the American Way.

Keep in mind the random group of people would likely have to test a weapon to make sure something like it would work.  This hold even for acquired rather than built weapons.   It does not seem likely a technically limited group could achieve high probability of a home made nuke actually detonating properly.  North Korea, with the resources of an entire totalitarian state, didn't quite achieve a fully successful detonation on its first try.  Even a acquired nuke would have safeguard against accidental detonation.   There is no garranty a third party trying to set it off can actually cause it to detonate properly without testing the process a few times.

Any test would instantly alert every major nation in the world.

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

A spot-on point that completely skipped my mind.

Great point.

[Thumpalumpacus]

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

And Osama just got lucky when he flew planes into the twin towers.  People do get lucky.

Sloppy comparison. Much easier to design a hijacking than a nuclear bomb, and luck wasn't really involved at all, on 9/11.

[CapnAwesome]

Acquiring might well be possible.  Making is probably off the table, sure. And dirty bombs which have, ahem, fallout penetrating the DNA is another thing.

What America does with a nuclear attack on New York City is entirely dependant on the actors and circumstances, was my point. But our government will certainly strike at the first available target. It's the American Way.

Keep in mind the random group of people would likely have to test a weapon to make sure something like it would work.  This hold even for acquired rather than built weapons.   It does not seem likely a technically limited group could achieve high probability of a home made nuke actually detonating properly.  North Korea, with the resources of an entire totalitarian state, didn't quite achieve a fully successful detonation on its first try.  Even a acquired nuke would have safeguard against accidental detonation.   There is no garranty a third party trying to set it off can actually cause it to detonate properly without testing the process a few times.

Any test would instantly alert every major nation in the world.

An untested terrorist nuke is far more likely to fizzle, and serve only to focus ferocious attention on the perpetrator, then to actually detonate properly and kills hundreds of thousand of people.

It being more likely to fizzle, isn't all the reassuring. I'm not saying that the scenario is likely at all anyway. I agree that it's extremely unlikely. I'm just curious as to what people think the world would be like afterwards. How drastic would the change?