33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age (Video)

33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age -- Heritage Foundation

33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age is a one-hour documentary produced by The Heritage Foundation that tells the story of the very real threat foreign enemies pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal - no matter where on Earth a missile is launched from it would take 33 Minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy.

Read more ....

Update: The Heritage Foundation's 33 Minutes - The Most Terrifying Movie of the Year -- Blog Critics

My Comment: No surprises in this video .... a good summary on the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology .... but it is still a disquieting thought that within 33 minutes after a missile has been launched .... an American city could be burning.

Is Our Interest In the Hiroshima Anniversary And Our Fear Of Nuclear Weapons Fading? -- A Commentary

Bizarrely, Our Fear Of Nuclear Weapons Has Faded, And Our Interest In The Hiroshima Anniversary Has Dwindled Accordingly -- Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph

While the 70th anniversaries of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain have been reported in intimate detail, the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs is passing largely unremarked.

Agonising about the rights and wrongs of the world’s first atomic attack used to be a handy way of filling the August news pages. This year, though – despite the promising peg of formal representation from the Allied governments at the commemoration – coverage has been sparse.

Read more ....

My Comment: My interest in the Hiroshima bombing anniversary probably started to decline right after 9/11. Why focus on another country's recognition of a terrible event when we have our own to be more concerned about. Continuous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the threat of nuclear terrorism from groups like Al Qaeda and their allies .... yup .... I would have to say that we have more on our plate to be interested in than Hiroshima's anniversary.

As to our fear of nuclear weapons fading .... I will have to say yes and no. The tensions that marked the cold war are no longer there, and our fear of a global nuclear conflict has dissipated with the end of the Soviet Union. Instead .... our fears are now at a lower level .... from nuclear terrorism associated with groups like Al Qaeda to small countries with limited nuclear stockpiles (Pakistan and India) going to war against each other.

So .... should we still be concerned about nuclear war .... yes. Should we be as concerned about nuclear war and weapons as we used to be .... probably not.

Does Deterrence Still Work?

On August 9, 1945, the American B-29 bomber, Bock's Car left Tinian carrying Fat Man, a plutonium implosion-type bomb. The primary target was the Kokura Arsenal, but upon reaching the target, they found that it was covered by a heavy ground haze and smoke, pilot Charles Sweeney turned to the secondary target of the Mitsubishi Torpedo Plant at Nagasaki. Of the 286,00 people living in Nagasaki at the time of the blast, 74,000 were killed and another 75,000 sustained severe injuries. Source: National Archives

Deterrence Still Works For States, But Not For Terrorists -- The Telegraph

If a nuclear-armed Iran is worrying, the idea of al-Qaeda with nukes is appalling, says Alasdair Palmer.

The international conference on "nuclear disarmament" organised in Tehran this weekend by the Iranian government is an attempt to distract the world's attention from the fact that Iran is poised to acquire its own nuclear arsenal. An Iran armed with nuclear warheads, and the missiles with which to lob them at nearby countries, is a very frightening prospect – but it's not nearly as frightening as terrorists armed with nukes.

Read more ....

My Comment: Are we in a state of denial .... after reading this commentary I will have to say yes.

A Commentary On President Obama's Nuclear Summit

Chinese President Hu Jintao(4th R,front)poses for a group photo with other world leaders during the Nuclear Security Summit at the Washington Convention Center in Washington,April 13,2010 0.(Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Obama's Nuclear Strutting And Fretting -- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

There was something oddly disproportionate about the just-concluded nuclear summit to which President Obama summoned 46 world leaders, the largest such gathering on American soil since 1945. That meeting was about the founding of the United Nations, which 65 years ago seemed an event of world-historical importance.

But this one? What was this great convocation about? To prevent the spread of nuclear material into the hands of terrorists. A worthy goal, no doubt. Unfortunately, the two greatest such threats were not even on the agenda.

Read more ....

My Comment: The paragraph that caught my attention from Charles Krauthammer was the following ....

.... Obama proudly announced that the United States and Russia were disposing of 68 tons of plutonium. Unmentioned was the fact that this agreement was reached 10 years ago -- and, under the new protocol, doesn't begin to dispose of the plutonium until 2018. Feeling safer now? ....

Sighhh ....

A lot was promised .... but only scraps delivered. Such is the real world of international relations and politics. But at least President Obama tried .... I have to give him credit for that .... I guess.

The BBC Has Just Painted One Big Bulls-Eye For Any Terrorist Group Interested In Nuclear Materials

Photo: Sellafield nuclear plant has the world's largest store of separated plutonium

UK Plutonium Cuts Strategy 'In Disarray' - Scientists -- The BBC

The UK's plan to cut its stockpile of separated plutonium is in "disarray", a group of scientists has warned.

The British Pugwash Group (BPG) says the way 100 tonnes of the deadly powder is being stored is "ludicrous".

Its experts fear the stockpile at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria - the largest in the world - could be a target for terrorists.

The government said the plutonium was stored safely and securely but recognised the need to make progress.

Read more ....

My Comment: We are so screwed.