Investors.com - The Most Sinister Of Motives

Investors.com - The Most Sinister Of Motives: "The Most Sinister Of Motives
Posted 11/13/2009 07:54 PM ET

Geopolitics: Why would China give uranium to Pakistan? Why would Russia help Iran build an A-bomb? Regional balance of power plays a role, but a nuclear 9/11 could restore Moscow and Beijing as superpowers.
Think of the destabilizing effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The country's fastest form of transportation was paralyzed as we picked up the pieces. Financial markets had to be closed, and when they reopened, private industry was dealt an immediate body blow.
Recession was a foregone conclusion. Business decisions had to be reconsidered, massive investments re-evaluated, new hirings postponed and layoffs expanded. Many firms folded.
Meanwhile, a nervous public wondered if the Golden Age of American dominance and prosperity was over. Was this the first of a series of attacks? Were we now so vulnerable within our own homeland that terrorism would become routine, part of the new fabric of the lives of those residing in free countries?
All of that came from the destruction of three buildings (the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center) and the severe damage to a fourth (the Pentagon). Several thousand died.
A nuclear version of the 9/11 attacks would destroy dozens of buildings, kill hundreds of thousands, and poison maybe millions with radiation. The Ground Zero of such an attack would not be a meeting place for prayer and remembrance, the site of a memorial monument, or a place where a new tower would rise to the skies.
The entire region would, instead, be uninhabitable, bathed in deadly cancer-causing emissions.
Would the U.S. be able to bounce back from such a catastrophe, as we did after 9/11, simply by mobilizing our forces against terrorist havens?
Perhaps. But maybe not."