...Nuclear War vs Terrorism During the early to mid-1900’s the threat that Americans were under from war was evident and frightening. The process of preparing for war against us is better than trying to prepare for a terrorist attack. The threat of terrorism today scares Americans more now than ever. The FBI website separates the term of terrorism into “Domestic Terrorism” and “International Terrorism”. Both definitions include similar content such as “acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law,” (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Terrorism attacks usually are a single event or multiple single events made by the same group towards innocent citizens of a nation. Terrorist attacks are more likely to be surprising attacks by a group or type of people that are defending or promoting a certain religious or political issue. Nuclear war would not be a good thing in these times, especially towards other countries that have limited resources. Nuclear weapons produce more than just geographic harm and economic turmoil, but it also causes severe pollution and health concerns. Some products used to build nuclear weapons are carcinogenic and can pose serious health among those who live near ground zero of a nuclear attack. “History, psychology, and common sense strongly suggest that nuclear war is more probable than most of us would like to believe. This, and the cataclysmic quality of nuclear war, imply that humanity can scarcely afford another half a century in the...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...Cold War and Communism Frances Epps July 26, 2014 HIS/145 Timothy Hayburn Introduction Nuclear attacks are due to military conflicts or a political strategy in which some form of nuclear weapon is used to inflict damage on the opponent. Terrorism is the use of violence to threat or intimidate generally for political reasoning. Both Nuclear attacks and terrorism are used to coerce the opposing party into meeting specific demands. One can only imagine what it was like doing the Nuclear War for the children as well as the adults. Training and practicing the protocol of what to do was taught as a lesson in school as if it was a common entity for the times. “Duck and Cover” was presented to the children in such a way that made the happenings of the war easier to comprehend. Still as a child I believe that the thought of an atomic bomb coming down around me had to be a scary thought. The war that severe that the lessons of the do’ and don’ts had to be covered, knowing what to do helped prepared the people for a nuclear attack. The threat of nuclear war and terrorism has many differences but like characteristics. The threat of nuclear war usually comes with a warning and one can prepare if it does happen. Terrorism...
Words: 746 - Pages: 3
...03/03/2014 James Fennessy Duck and Cover There are many questions in today’s society vs. the era of the nuclear bomb. Back during the cold war, it must have been brutal just thinking about a nuclear bomb dropping on us. Imagine being a child, and constantly having the fear of possibly being in the path of a nuclear bomb. The adults were just as afraid and nervous for the lives and those of their children as well. The government was always looking at nuclear weapons and showed its power with the bombing of Hiroshima during August 6, 1945. (Rosenburg, n.d.) With the knowledge that our country has today, and thinking of a nuclear war, no one could imagine living through one in this day and age. However, the threat of the nuclear confrontation is somewhat similar today. A nuclear war is very similar to the threat we see today with terrorism. Both of these threats can lead to a lot of mental issues, economic issues, and political issues. Not to mention the amount of stress of conflict has on the American psyche. The threat of terrorist attacks is immediate, but the nuclear threat does still loom. Although, both are dangerous, terrorists attacks are typically the explosion of buildings, bridges, and other highly populated areas. Nuclear attacks can decimate continents, and wide ranges of area. Terrorist attacks are normally minor compared to the attack of a nuclear weapon. Since the bombing of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, we still suspect that there will be another attack...
Words: 374 - Pages: 2
...During the Cold War period, the US and the Soviet Union were under the threat of "Mutually Assured Destruction". Each country's leaders knew they would doom their country to annihilation if they initiated a first strike. Citizens knew that doomsday scenarios were possible. They feared accidents; even though leaders of both countries had sworn not to attack first, people easily visualized scenarios in which misunderstandings, technological failures, or even rogue commanders could have started a full-scale nuclear war. While the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was resolved peacefully, the US could have easily invaded Cuba, forcing the Soviets to retaliate, almost certainly with nuclear weapons. A nuclear attack on US soil would have had unspeakable consequences - the deaths of millions, as well as possibly hundreds of years of contaminated land leading to birth defects, cancer, and other horrors as have been seen, e.g. near the Chernobyl site. The current threat of terrorism we live under is in some ways much less. On the one hand, terrorist attacks happen every day across the world - Americans have been killed in embassy bombings, by IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of course on 9/11. A nuclear war is still only theoretical (America still being the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons in warfare). However, the numbers of people who die in terrorist attacks worldwide doesn't even approximate the numbers who might die in a nuclear attack - terrorist attacks are generally...
Words: 382 - Pages: 2
...atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan. This atomic bomb, the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT, flattened the city, killing tens of thousands of civilians. While Japan was still trying to comprehend this devastation three days later, the United States struck again, this time, on Nagasaki.[1] The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date. [2] Following a firebombing campaign that destroyed many Japanese cities, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of Japan. The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on 8 May, but the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945, threatening Japan with "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum, and the United States deployed two nuclear weapons developed by the Manhattan Project. American airmen dropped Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, followed by Fat Man over Nagasaki on 9 August.[3] Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.[4] The Hiroshima prefecture health department...
Words: 4469 - Pages: 18
...Cold War and Communism Paper University of Phoenix Living under a threat of a nuclear war would be terrifying. After watching the Duck and Cover film I could not imagine living in a threat of an atomic bomb dropping anytime every day. It is like you are constantly on lookout for the flash, listening for the siren, or both. Being a child when this is going on would scare the life out of me. I would not be able to sleep or do anything. On television, they had TV programs to distract the kids and make them feel like nothing was going on like the show Leave it to Beaver. However, there was a big war going on outside and it was only a distraction. Disneyland was created during this time to give families a place to go to get their minds off of the war. It was probably horrible to go thinking you might go home to your house that would not be there. Living as a kid during this time would probably be the toughest part. Hearing the sirens or seeing the flash at anytime would scare me. The threat of terrorism is about the same as under a nuclear war. They both threaten the life of you and your family. They can happen anytime and anywhere with or without warning. There might be no signals or sounds going off to let you know that they are heading your way. There are some different between them the two though. One, is the nuclear war really does not involve a whole army it takes just a push of a button to start it. It only takes one man to mention the sound of having a war and...
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...did not experience living under the fear of a nuclear war I believe that living under the fear of terrorists attacks are very similar. I was very young so I did not take the drills too seriously because I was not fully aware of all the dangerous things that can happen suddenly. I remember being in the 5th grade and hearing the school alarms go off and every student was to report to the school auditorium like we had practiced every week. We were then sent home early and I remember turning on the television and seeing the explosion caused by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I panicked because my father was working in Manhattan at the time and I did not know how close he was to the attack. From that day on I knew the importance of drills. I also began to experience living in fear of a terrorist attack. The threat of nuclear war and the threat of terrorism are similar in that it causes American citizens anxiety and stress because nobody wants to die before they have to. The threat of nuclear war would most likely have a precursor, such as a situation like the Korean War or the Cuban Missile Crisis, and so it would possibly be expected. With terrorism, nobody knows when, or how terrorists are going to strike and so it is very hard to prepare the country and its citizens to prevent such an attack. Also with nuclear war it has the potential to kill millions of people and create untold damage to infrastructure. With terrorism, nobody expects the damage to be so high, but in...
Words: 335 - Pages: 2
...Duck and Cover Nuclear warfare was something that could damage all of civilization within a wide area, to know that a bomb could be set off and at anytime with no knowledge of when is a little scary. I would personally want to have some kind of idea so that I could protect my family in some form or fashion. In the video duck and cover watching the kids walking down the street and the bomb going off is scary. The video was a good form of teaching children and parents how to protect themselves if a nuclear bomb was to be set off. When terrorism struck the people had no idea of what was happening. The fact that a person or group of people considers hurting the innocent is wrong. The people that were killed in the 9-11 attack were just innocent by standers that were targeted because one person was upset with something that a past president had done. I personally think that a problem should be resolved in a different way other than violence. Terrorism threats and nuclear war are both dangerous to civilization. They both hurt and destroy innocent people and things. Unlike terrorism threats a nuclear bomb can destroy a wide variety of things and can affect civilization longer because of radiation being released, terrorist threats like 9-11 can destroy a variety of things like a nuclear bomb but it takes more than just one bomb. Terrorist threats can also affect civilization for a long period of time also, the people that lose family members can never get over that pain no matter what...
Words: 323 - Pages: 2
...Flakes Duck and Cover The society we live in today is so different than that of World War II. In that era the biggest threat of destroying society was the atomic bomb. In these times of today we face so many different threats of terrorism from other countries and from within our own cities. Even more than just terrorism, today’s society faces some many threats from within itself, such as Ganges in the inner cities, to the fall of inner city government through the influence from the sales of illegal drugs. The survival of a nuclear act was and all ways will be one of society’s main concerns. The atomic boom was the center of fear because, the technology had just been discovered and other countries had the technology in their hands as will. The U.S. had no real protection for the people from being acted by other countries, for the most part it was a wait and see game played with the threats between two countries. It seem to have such an impact on the people of that time it changed their life styles, from saving money for the further too the build and stocking boom shelters in their back yards. Comparing the threat nuclear war to the threat of terrorism today is different in many was in that terrorism has many different faces. Today’s terrorism comes not only from other countries but also comes from within the U.S. from some of our own people. Like the students of World War II, the students of today are still being taught to duck and cover, not for the fear of a boom...
Words: 360 - Pages: 2
...Speranza The Imminent Threat While nuclear terrorism has been a significant concern of government officials over the last decade, the threat is continually burgeoning, more alarmingly now than ever before. Amidst tumultuous global conditions—with the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Syria, among others—the US has begun losing some of its prestige, stamina, and amicable relations with other international actors. Though the US is still arguably the most powerful nation in the world, its recent actions and reputation have made it more vulnerable to an outside attack. Several policy makers and scholars, including Graham Allison, Charles Ferguson, and William Potter, have asserted the imminent threat of nuclear terrorism, highlighting the availability of nuclear weapons and materials to non-state actors (2004; 2004). These scholars also point out the feasibility of orchestrating an attack, due to the US government’s failure to pursue effective prevention strategies. Since the conditions seem to be so favorable, some have questioned why no such incident has occurred yet. However, considering the risks, the results of a nuclear attack would not most efficiently accomplish the goals of many terrorist organizations, which often strive for a large number of witnesses as opposed to deaths (Hoffman, 2006; Jenkins, 2006). Additionally, many terrorists fear that conducting a nuclear attack on the US would create backlash and warrant a nuclear response that would not...
Words: 1943 - Pages: 8
...Provider ID_peterjharvey There are multiple threats to security in Southwest Asia today. Which threat in your opinion poses the greatest danger to regional and international peace and why? There are many documented reasons why Southwest Asia poses a danger to regional and international peace, and this essay is designed to touch on some of the myriad of problems confronting Southwest Asia at the present time and explain why. If we look at internationally, Southwest Asia presents U.S. policymakers with some of their most difficult and seemingly intractable foreign policy problems. Regionally, where do you start, some of the region’s problems, for example, the former Maoist insurgency in Nepal and the protracted civil war that raged for decades in Sri Lanka have finally been resolved ( I believe that it must be remembered that although, in the case of the latter, Tamil aspirations for independence could eventually reignite that conflict at any time), the region’s most dangerous problems remain unresolved, when we look at the two major powers of the region India and Pakistan which remain in a state of perpetual conflict, although their current governments have kept nationalistic/religious fervour in their respective countries to a minimum – a situation that could change soon with the election of a Hindu nationalist to be prime minister of India( Narendra Modi). With both countries possessing nuclear weapons and both countries harbouring considerable numbers of extremists...
Words: 1097 - Pages: 5
...Cold War and Communism Living under the threat of nuclear war could cause anxiety, panic, mayhem and distrust, depending on the person and their coping mechanisms. Nuclear weapons still exist, and worse still, more and more countries are developing them. We have been living under the threat of nuclear war since the day more than one country has had nuclear weapons. The threat of nuclear war is no less now than back during the Cold War. When comparing the Cold War to terrorism today, we must understand they are both becoming an equal risk. During the time frame with the Cold War with Russia, the U.S and Russia came very close at times to a nuclear war on many occasions. In the Cold War era, both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S each had the fire power to wipe all existence of the planet and split the earth in half; can you imagine any type of greater threat than that? Now in current time, we have rogue countries like North Korea helping and selling nuclear weaponry to extremist Islamic groups. North Korea is selling nuclear weapons to Syria and Iran, meaning the threat of nuclear war is very much real today. The Russians developed their nuclear arsenal to serve as a counter threat to the U.S nuclear technology and they never intended to use the weapons unless they were attacked. Iran is indeed developing nuclear weapons with the same concept as Russia, but it would not be hard to imagine those using nuclear weapons against Israel. In the 50’s Americans feared nuclear war, where now...
Words: 336 - Pages: 2
...knowledge What is international security? We could start thinking about the security council of the UN But also about the invasion of Afghanistan (chapter 7 UN in order to secure the international security) We can also think about security in terms of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was a unilateral act of war, but sure it can also mean other things We can think of the national security agency, the agency in charge of spying all the signals and communications to a certain extent. What’s interesting about the NSA, it is seen as a threat to the security of the privacy. Lately, with the reports of the UN development programme, we start talking about HUMAN security (not military security, but rather the security of individuals, having a livelihood that’s acceptable). Whether security is international or not, it can be a rather confusing word The protection of values we hold dear. We search for it, we pursue it, we achieve it, we deny it to others. * what is to be secured? Is it the security of states? Or individuals? * What is the actual threat that we’re facing? Primarily to be dealing with military threats, or are there other types of threats we are facing. Essentially contested concept A concept that ‘inevitably’ involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part of their users – Walter Gallie There can be ambiguity (one persons freedom-fighter is the other’s terrorist). A concept that is debated in its essence. We can think about...
Words: 16869 - Pages: 68
...and Cover video created in 1951 focuses on teaching children how to protect themselves from the effects of nuclear explosion from the 1950s, until the end of the Cold War in the 1980s. It is introduced by a cartoon turtle Bert, who demonstrates duck and cover by stopping and covering his body with his shell. It served a great purpose of teaching children who may not be under direct adult supervision when the nuclear bomb attack occurred and needed to be educated on personal safety until they were with adults to guide them. It remains in memory today. At the time people living in the United States were told to remain on guard in case an explosion occurred. The time to duck and cover was when a siren was heard, along with an extremely bright flash of light. Children were taught to duck in a safe area near a wall or in a doorway. Covering includes using one’s hands to cover his or her head, neck and face. It is similar to terrorism today, because weapons of mass destruction remain a threat. We are still faced with the possibility of war with other countries. It continues to affect individuals of the U.S. as well as the land. Destruction and reconstruction is capable of remains was and remains a fear. Differences between the nuclear war threats and today’s threats are related to the increase of extreme levels that take place today. Plane bombings and chemical terrorisms have occurred in recent years. There was no warning for civilians during the September 11th attacks which...
Words: 345 - Pages: 2
...Should all countries in the world be able to develop their own nuclear weapons? More importantly, if so, can these countries be trusted? Richard Rhodes, the author of the essay entitled “Living with the bomb,” believes that they can. With cooperation and negotiations Rhodes believes nations can secure the deadly materials from which weapons of mass destruction are made of. He also believes that this will help reduce arsenals which will help eliminate possible future risks. The author somehow believes that regardless of the tensions in the Middle East and its surrounding countries, they are worthy of our trust in a matter as great and serious as their development of nuclear weapons. Throughout his essay, Rhodes cites several cases throughout history where there have been direct threats due to the fact that certain countries simply cannot be trusted. Nuclear weapons are an extremely big deal in our world today, especially when it comes to terrorism. The idea of relying only on cooperation to secure the materials required to build nuclear weapons is outrageous, and the only program that would eliminate all threats would be by disarming all countries of their nuclear programs. Although it would be very nice and beneficial to everyone if we could simply trust other nations in believing that they did not have motives in developing a nuclear arsenal, it is simply not possible. Although, Rhodes discusses the reasons why some of these countries cannot be trusted, he still believes that...
Words: 1533 - Pages: 7
