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View Full Version : Mitt Romney, Iran And Dirty Bombs -- So Very, Very Wrong



shaarona
09-25-2012, 02:06 AM
Mitt Romney, Iran And Dirty Bombs -- So Very, Very Wrong

These last two weeks have been heartbreaking for many reasons. A great man was murdered, and the Arab Spring may be morphing into something more dire. But one of the weirdest moments was Mitt Romney linking Iran to a dirty bomb threat.

In a secret video (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/romney-secret-video-israeli-palestinian-middle-east-peace) released early this week by David Corn of Mother Jones, Mitt Romney said:

“…if I were Iran – a crazed fanatic, I’d say let’s get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago (http://www.forbes.com/places/il/chicago/) or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we’ll just say, “Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we’re going to let off a dirty bomb.” I mean this is where we have—where America could be held up and blackmailed by Iran, by the mullahs, by crazy people. So we really don’t have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”

This is wrong on so many levels. Iran is not a dirty bomb threat in the least. Dirty bombs have nothing to do with nuclear bombs, nothing to do with fissile material like enriched uranium or even plutonium, and nothing to do with having a weapons program.
U and Pu are the least effective materials to use in a dirty bomb, emitting the wrong kind of radiation, occurring in the wrong form to disperse, are well-tracked and extremely expensive, and are much more valuable in a real nuke. Even the stupid terrorists know this.

But more troubling for a Presidential candidate is that Romney doesn’t seem know which of the two routes Iran has chosen to make their nuclear weapon: 1) enriching uranium, which doesn’t require a nuclear reactor, or 2) extracting plutonium which does require a nuclear reactor, specifically a weapons reactor. Iran has chosen the first whereas DPRK (North Korea) has chosen the second.
It seems Mr. Romney needs a dirty bomb primer.

continued.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/09/21/mitt-romney-iran-and-dirty-bombs-so-very-very-wrong/print/

Mitt should stop talking....

shaarona
09-25-2012, 02:09 AM
What is a "dirty bomb"?

Radiation dispersal devices (RDDs), or dirty bombs, are devices that disperse radioactive materials by any means possible. They are not nuclear weapons in any sense, and their effects are minimal outside the actual car bomb or explosion itself.

The most effective means of dispersal from a terrorist standpoint is a car bomb with highly radioactive material that is easily dispersible, e.g., 137CsCl powder in an Oklahoma City-type ANFO car bomb. Fissile material such as enriched uranium or even plutonium are poor and ineffective materials for an RDD and so the Iranian weapons program is irrelevant to the dirty bomb threat.

URF8
09-25-2012, 03:32 AM
Margot, why do you believe in Obama?

shaarona
09-25-2012, 03:36 AM
Margot, why do you believe in Obama?

I think he is very smart.. I like his approach to foreign policy and his awareness of his limitations.

Further, I didn't expect any quick fix for the economy.

URF8
09-25-2012, 03:51 AM
I think he is very smart.. I like his approach to foreign policy and his awareness of his limitations.

Further, I didn't expect any quick fix for the economy.

Hope, faith and resignation. Sounds more religious than political.

shaarona
09-25-2012, 03:57 AM
Hope, faith and resignation. Sounds more religious than political.

I watched this thing developing in 2000.. and I knew we were in freefall for a number of reasons. I also think we will come back better than ever with some fundamental changes in our thinking.

Look at the GOP stable.. The only one with a brain was Huntsman and he couldn't get any traction. Too much tea party and too much dumbing down on both sides of the aisle.

URF8
09-25-2012, 04:12 AM
I watched this thing developing in 2000.. and I knew we were in freefall for a number of reasons. I also think we will come back better than ever with some fundamental changes in our thinking.

Look at the GOP stable.. The only one with a brain was Huntsman and he couldn't get any traction. Too much tea party and too much dumbing down on both sides of the aisle.

The Republican Party is being radically reformed. You haven't seen anything yet.

The US and America aren't the same thing. Radical Republicans are going to paralyze the US politically so that it can't be used by the left to further the leftist agenda.

shaarona
09-25-2012, 04:18 AM
The Republican Party is being radically reformed. You haven't seen anything yet.

The US and America aren't the same thing. Radical Republicans are going to paralyze the US politically so that it can't be used by the left to further the leftist agenda.

See what I mean? Dumbing down.