The Good News About Nuclear Destruction

Hydrogeology, Geology, & Environmental Issues

In a word, a terrorist nuclear attack likely would be limited to a small device, and therefore would cause limited damage, especially if people knew what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations if living in the area of attack. Tragically, though, most Americans today won’t give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture’s pervasive myths of nuclear un-survivability. Most people think that if nukes go off, then everybody is going to die, or will wish they had. That’s why you hear such absurd comments as: “If it happens, I hope I’m at ground zero and go quickly.”

This defeatist attitude was born as the disarmament movement ridiculed any alternatives to their agenda. The sound Civil Defense strategies of the ’60s have been derided as being largely ineffective, or at worst a cruel joke. With the supposed end of the Cold War in the ’80s, most Americans neither saw a need to prepare, nor believed that preparation would do any good. Today, with growing prospects of nuclear terrorism, we see emerging among the public either paralyzing fear or irrational denial. People can no longer envision effective preparations for surviving a nuclear attack. In fact, though, the biggest surprise for most Americans, if nukes are really unleashed, is that they will still be here!

Most will survive the initial blasts because they won’t be close enough to any “ground zero,” and that is very good news. Unfortunately, few people will be prepared to survive the coming radioactive fallout, which will eventually kill many times more than the blast. However, there is still more good news: Well over 90 percent of the potential casualties from fallout can be avoided if the public is pre-trained through an aggressive national Civil Defense educational program. Simple measures taken immediately after a nuclear blast, by a trained public, can prevent agonizing death and injury from radiation.

Original URL: https://www.wnd.com/2006/08/37591/