Will a U.S. City Be Nuked?

Follow-up to Goodbye, VCR:
“I remember what TV was like when it was black and white still. My kids can’t imagine it.”
--Marc Canter, California software developer

Quote of the day:
“The threat to the United States now of a 9/11 occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities, is the greatest threat we face.”
--Vice President Dick Cheney

I’m willing to believe that the explosion of a nuclear device in one of our cities is a significant threat. I’m not sure about it being “the greatest threat we face.” Just because the current vice president says it doesn’t make it so, for me.

There are two serious problems with this statement. First, the vice president said this in response to questions about the course of the war in Iraq. His assumption (and that of the current White House) is that Iraq is the key “front” in a global war on terrorism.

He responds to criticism of the war by linking Iraq with trafficking in nuclear material or technology. Am I supposed to accept that Iraq is the only or even the primary way that nuclear material can find its way into the wrong hands?

The second problem with the vice president’s statement is that it seeks to play on our fear--a fear that may be in our minds if we are watching the TV drama 24, in which terrorists explode a suitcase nuke in the Los Angeles area.

It’s wrong to simply dismiss the nuclear threat. But it is equally wrong to use our fear of that threat to justify continuation of a war in a country that plays a very small role at best in furthering such a threat.