Now maybe you’re more interested in those fallout shelters?Ĭhicago’s frenzied early cold war efforts to find atomic cover resemble a plot synopsis for a Road Runner cartoon. “The more sophisticated nuclear powers like Russia may have possession of neutron bombs, because it does a foreign power no good to invade a country when it’s all destroyed. “And another thing you should be aware of,” Moriarty mentions, almost as an afterthought. “We still need to be vigilant because of countries like Iran and the development of technology to deliver the bomb.” “There are several countries in the world where development of nuclear bombs is a viable option, so we think it’s a major threat,” he says. The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control believes nuclear weapons are “a very real physical threat,” according to research analyst Jordan Ritchie. In a recent speech, defense secretary William Perry said that “it is possible that Russia will emerge from her turbulence as an authoritarian, militaristic, imperialistic nation, hostile to the West.” In fact, his views aren’t so far from the foreign policy mainstream. To post-cold war ears, he can sound eerily like General Jack D. Moriarty paints his gloomy scenarios in a low, deliberate voice. And the danger is proliferating to third world countries and enemies of the U.S.” “What we have at play in the world is a lot of foreign powers, once part of the Soviet Union, and a lot have nuclear arsenals. “There’s a great apathy and a false idea that we’re out of all danger of a nuclear attack, and that’s not so,” he counsels. In other words, Moriarty thinks you should take shelters seriously, too. Now you’re a sitting duck for the incoming–your radar is knocked out, your air defense won’t work. “That would knock out all your communications. “An airburst would be the first thing,” says Moriarty pensively.
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