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Ask HN: Isn't the NSA justified when cities can be vaporized with a nuke?

3 points by microb ↗ HN
Imagine how upset we'd be if a nuclear weapon exploded in the US. The devastation of a nuclear explosion in a large city would make September 11th look like child's play and the draconian response following the attack would make the PATRIOT Act look the same. I'm not supporting the NSA, but I'm not condemning them yet, either.

11 comments

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RussianCow
Sorry, but how does PRISM help protect us against a nuke? As I understand it, PRISM was meant to find "foreign" individuals who pose a threat to US national security. I don't think it can prevent something on such a large scale.
microb
Huh? Could not a rogue nation smuggle a nuclear device into a city? How would this not fall under the umbrella of a "foreign" individual posing a threat to US national security?
dchichkov
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
microb
I like this quote, but Ben Franklin didn't live in a world where a device the size of a beer cooler could instantly turn Philadelphia into a parking lot.
noonespecial
To be quite honest, I'm not sure America as we know it could survive the detonation of a nuke in a major city, but if we tear it down anyway in fear of the possibility, the only thing missing is the boom.
microb
Tearing down America with Orwellian surveillance is one thing, losing NYC to mushroom cloud is something entirely different. The mushroom cloud issue is a very real problem and many (everyone?) would say we would do whatever it takes to prevent such a thing.
nostrademons
It survived Hurricane Katrina, which created devastation similar to a nuclear weapon, albeit with a somewhat lower (though still very significant) death toll.

I think it would matter a lot which city. A nuke in Manhattan? Forget it - there goes the stock exchange, most financial firms, Madison Avenue, 11 million Americans, and the most recognizable city on earth. DC? There goes the government. Cleveland? We'd probably be okay.

Something like Boston or SF would be borderline - it'd be a tragedy, but the country would survive. I wonder what a nuke in Silicon Valley would be like though: a large one well-placed near Sunnyvale would take out Google, Apple, Facebook, EBay, Adobe, and Yahoo.

noonespecial
I was thinking the destruction would be more philosophical, an acute and immediate version of the slow burn that seems to be pulling it apart at the middle now.

If a city got nuked I think its possible that the US might split into two groups. Those that would literally accept a police state to prevent it from happening again and those (mostly who didn't live in cities like the one destroyed) who would not. I believe that this would end in two or more independent countries.

microb
We trust the same elected officials with weapons capable of making our species extinct and suddenly when we discover the same people have an "information bomb" which can query your porn history, it's time to get upset?