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Neutron Bomb Question

Should the US Resume Neutron Bomb Research?


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Taiwan is still run by the descendants of Chank Ki Chek and they will not be ruled by a Chinese occupation. China knows that. Taking a hard line towards Taipei is standard procedure for Chinese because of what a ganster Chang was. I think as long as the Mainland talks tough and makes provocative jestures in the straights periodically that's enough.
Compared to Mao he was a *****cat.
 
What is the relative size and strength of the militaries? The goal in war is not and should not be to destroy all the people of a nation.
Do you ever read any history? Genocidal war is a time honored tradition in many cultures.
 
Why do you think killing millions of innocent Chinease will make us safer. Destroy their military, which should be doable, and they are no threat.

Besides, we have more than enough nukes now to destroy any country in it's totality without making new weapons.
Just to check our moral compass here, aren't soldiers of a totalitarian state also "innocents?" If we have to kill millions of ignorant young Chinese men one day to defend Progressives, Liberals, Pacifists, Humanists and other mistakes of Social evolution, I want them to realize that they share in the responsibility.
 
Since China has 1,300 million people and the United States has less than a quarter of that, should the United States resume intensive studies of enhanced radiation weapons to prepare for possible future armed conflict with an enemy that could field an army four times the size of ours?

I argue that it may become necessary for the US to employ nuclear weapons on US soil, and in that event, it would be ideal to minimize the damage from blast and fallout and concentrate the weapon's effects on the enemy invaders.

I say yes we should develop neutron bombs. What ever our enemies have we should have something equal and if we can something better than our enemies. Better to have and not need it than to need it and not have it. The atomic bombs worked in WWII,who knows how many more American lives we would have lost if we didn't use those bombs.
 
Uh, that minimizes the radiation that actually has any effect. The greater the distance, especially when it comes to atmospheric particles that absorb the radiation, the less damage you do. You need to do close to the target. The optimal range is around 600 meters, which is about 1/3 of a mile which will still cause considerable damage to the target infrastructure. 10 km may not have any real impact whatsoever as that's 10,000 meters, well beyond the optimal range to remove armor.

Fast Neutrons aren't just "radiation", they are particles that travel great distances until "thermalized". Think sandblasting, intense sandblasting.....
And the troops that don't die soon will be too sick to fight.
I am a former navy nuke, and know a bit more than you about this. It seems that without the proper education, most people don't understand the info they find on line...
 
The U.S. has had enhanced radiation weapons for years.
 
You think China has 200 bombs they can send to the US.

Well, Bernie Schwartz did pay Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars to be allowed to sell MIRV technology to the Chinese, so we can no longer discuss their Long Shot rocket and have to use the name the Chinese gave it, the Long March.

That's one thing.

They might have two hundred of the things by now. After all, no one on the left is capable of considering the Chinese as anything but a poor third world nation "down trodden" (ranks up there for cliche use with "hyperpartisn") by the evil America.

Meanwhile, the Messiah is going to further reduce our nuclear stockpile to a thousand, effectively eliminating our deterrent force.
 
Delivered in 30 minutes or less, or they're free.

Don't forget that the Messiah is cutting back SDI research, which means the enemy will know that the bombs they launch will hit their targets if their own missiles are reliable.
 
Fast Neutrons aren't just "radiation", they are particles that travel great distances until "thermalized".

Not as far as you think they do.

Is the Neutron Bomb Ready? - TIME

And the troops that don't die soon will be too sick to fight

While this is true, neutron radiation does leave open significent periods of time where they can indeed act.

It seems that without the proper education, most people don't understand the info they find on line...

Your link really wasn't all that helpful. As explained earlier, the radius of lethal radiation isn't that far while the damage while far less than a regular nuclear weapon is still significant. Given the senario Scarecrow gave, we'd need to use thousands of these, resulting in massive overall damage. Scarecrow seems to think that the neutron bomb is a box that just releases neutrons and causes no physical damage.
 
What is the relative size and strength of the militaries? The goal in war is not and should not be to destroy all the people of a nation.
A goal of war is to add territory; unless all of the people in this territory are either killed or chased out, nothing is accomplished...
Hopefully, man will become civilized and this sort of discussion would be mute.
 
Not as far as you think they do.

Is the Neutron Bomb Ready? - TIME



While this is true, neutron radiation does leave open significent periods of time where they can indeed act.



Your link really wasn't all that helpful. As explained earlier, the radius of lethal radiation isn't that far while the damage while far less than a regular nuclear weapon is still significant. Given the senario Scarecrow gave, we'd need to use thousands of these, resulting in massive overall damage. Scarecrow seems to think that the neutron bomb is a box that just releases neutrons and causes no physical damage.

The most effective use is against armor, as in tanks. Given the abilities of our tank busting warthogs and helicopters, I'd say that the neutron bomb is a waste of resources, with the one exception as I previously stated.
Millions of troops and armor pouring across a relatively narrow choke point of land would be stopped in their tracks. That is the situation in NK.
South Korean cities are within range of most of NK weapons, so any attack, stopped in its tracks or not, will be messy. But if it happens, I hope we take out 110% of NK's ability to wage war.
Heinlein, scifi author, says an armed society is a polite society. Everybody is a threat to everybody else....so choose your words and actions carefully.
In theory, it should work, but in fact, some are crazy and/or have a deathwish. NK is led by crazies...and crazies should not be allowed weapons of any kind...
 
A goal of war is to add territory; unless all of the people in this territory are either killed or chased out, nothing is accomplished...
Hopefully, man will become civilized and this sort of discussion would be mute.

moot, not mute...:happy:
There are still some territorial disputes going on, but I have to wonder if those aren't just covers for just plain old revenge and hatred for deeds done decades ago, and longer.
If we found a place suitable and acceptable to the Jews to move to, and there were none left in the ME, it would make next to no difference. The Arab countries would still be fighting each other. Islam is a fractured religion, not as bad as baptists, but still, fractured...
 
According to the limited information available, a neutron bomb kills many people by radiation, but has a very weak explosion that leaves the infrastructure intact.

This can be a very decisive advantage in a situation where an enemy has invaded a sizable portion of our country and has run out the civilians. Drop a neutron bomb, and the enemy is quickly destroyed.

Another advantage is that the radiation is short lived. Soon the bombed area can be re-occupied.

A conventional or regular nuclear war would be very messy and expensive.
 
You think China has 200 bombs they can send to the US.

Partly due to our recession and partly due to the sheer numbers of the Chinese workers producing money for their government the Chinese are going to pass us like we are standing still economically and in turn militarily too because this is where their leaders are putting most of their profits right now. How can they NOT have many more WMD's than that.

China has proven they have technology to knock out satellites. This in turn shows their technological capability to strike us with a barage of surface to surface missiles. They also spend a lot of their profits on submarines and surely they can barage us with missiles from them too.

China has GREATLY increased their military spending since they are becoming industrialized. Some speculate the only reason China started to use capitalism is to become a military competitor with the U.S.
 
The issue of the neutron bomb is whether we abandon the premise that everyone knows nuclear war would destroy civilization by radiation. There is little point to counting nuclear weapons once each side's count goes into the hundreds.

China has already defeated the United States.

China shifted to a free enterprise and capitalism.

The United States has shifted to national socialism.

So the Chinese economy is booms as the United States economy used to, and the United States economy is collasping as do all socialistic economies.

China could send the United States into a instant massive depression merely by ceasing to extend us credit. We couldn't even have Christmas presents under the tree without China.

The issue of the neutron bomb isn't exactly related to China and it would more have application in a limited police action type conflict. Wipe out everyone in a selected area without leaving behind flaming ruins covered in long term radioactive dust.
 
The issue of the neutron bomb is whether we abandon the premise that everyone knows nuclear war would destroy civilization by radiation.

When did "everyone" know this? Kinda depends on how big the war is.

There is little point to counting nuclear weapons once each side's count goes into the hundreds.

Sure there is. We need to count how many they have so we can have ten times as many.

China has already defeated the United States.

Oh? Why aren't I typing in Mandarin or Tangerine or some other orange kind of language?

China shifted to a free enterprise and capitalism.

Hardly. Can't have capitalism without political freedom. Can't have free enterprise without political freedom, either.

The United States has shifted to national socialism.

That's what happens when the Constitution is violated.

Remember, friends don't let friends vote Democrat.
 
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