“Only one low-voltage switch prevented a cataclysm,” states The Guardian. Apaprently, a nuclear armed plane was flying over North Carolina in 1961 when it started breaking up in midair and deployed two hydrogen bombs. Because of failed security measures, one of them almost detonated. The bomb was 250 times more destructive then the ones the United States dropped on Japan, and had a 100% kill zone of 17 miles. Who knows what it was for the endless miles after that. The town it would’ve hit, Goldsboro, now has 35,000 people in it with a 5 mile radius.
How close was the cataclysm? According to Lieutenant Jack ReVelle, the bomb squad commander that picked up the debris from the undetonated bomb 50 years ago, “it was damn close!” He was sworn to secrecy, but 50 years later he revealed what he knew. Thank God.
The United States alone has the capacity to blow the world up somewhere between 5 and 50 times over. And it’s a Nobel Peace Prize Winner that that has the power. The irony! Unfortunately, he won’t tell us exactly how many times he can blow the world over, but I guess that’s the whole point, right?
The question of nuclear missiles is a complicated one, with many more sides and facets than war vs. peace. There are some who will argue that nukes make the world more peaceful, believe it or not. But let’s forget about that for a second. The United States got “damn close!” to killing thousands of its own people. They have the capacity to blow the world up many, many, times over. So do many other countries. Maybe nuclear missiles aren’t so bad. But maybe setting one off because of weather disturbances is bad. Maybe destroying the world more than once is a bit of reach. Perhaps we aught to consider.
Unfortunately, people don’t. Read the comments to the link in the picture.
Whispers of Satan 