By Gary Jacobsen

In 1945, Americans struck the island nation of Japan with two atomic bombs. There were considerable casualties and widespread destruction, but the country survived, and today there is little evidence of damage. Similarly, America will survive a nuclear attack. The total land area of Japan is 145,914 sq. mi., and the total land area of the United States (excluding Alaska, which is not worth targeting by an adversary) is 3,145,862 sq. mi. Thus, the United States is about 22 times larger than Japan. In theory, we could absorb strikes by 44 atomic bombs and fare no worse than Japan did in World War II.

Of course, this simple math is deceptive. Nowadays, countries have hundreds, even thousands of nuclear weapons in their arsenals. Israel alone has over 200 atomic devices stockpiled. Also, nuclear bombs and missile warheads nowadays have explosive force in the megaton range, whereas the devices we dropped on Japan were in the 18 to 21 kiloton range.

But the fact remains that significant numbers of Americans will survive a nuclear barrage. The new Department of Homeland Security is not able to deal with mass casualties (they tried and failed during Katrina, and that affected only one small city). Thus, recovery will fall to the military, augmented by state and local police.

Military commanders will have to move decisively to bring at least some semblance of order out of chaos. Their actions must include:

- Declare martial law, and conscript state and local police into the force structure.
- Seize food stocks, including supermarkets and warehouses.
- Seize medicine stocks, particularly antibiotics and pain killers.
- Requisition cars, trucks and vans to move forces and to collect survivors.
- Assume control of hospitals and hotels that can be used to accommodate mass casualties.
- Conscript doctors, nurses and pharmacists and assign them to hospitals or to hotel clinics.
- Military engineer units must requisition heavy equipment (bulldozers, cranes, etc.) to clear rubble.

Politicians and most other civilians in the government will have nothing to say about priorities, missions or appropriate functions on the part of the military in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. The only question that remains for the rest of us is whether or not today's generals and colonels have the presence of mind and the courage to act decisively after a nuclear attack. Most assuredly, they cannot sit around waiting for mission orders from "higher authority" (which may no longer exist).

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_warfare

Author's URL: http://garyjacobsen.synthasite.com