Now, the question is whether the regime in Iran is confident enough in its control of the population to do that kind of thing. The U.S. government in the 1940’s could do it because the populace was largely ignorant of the existence of radiation and its effects upon human beings. That hasn’t been true anywhere in the world for decades now. My guess is that the only way the regime would risk doing it the fast way would be if there was real risk of a U.S. invasion of Iran, a risk that they could communicate and quantify to their population in a way that would work the population up into a patriotic fervor. Which would be hard to do, given that they try doing this so much already that a large percentage of the population is, like, “eh, whatever.”

For many people this may have been news in 1985… but I’ve known most of it for a long time: it’s sickening to have been born on the third anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, and I’ve tried to compensate by educating myself about its history.

Didn’t I write almost exactly that, last week on the YDDV? The reported kill rate for V‑2s in London averaged out to two (2) persons per rocket. Terror weapon, indeed, expensive and ineffective for any other purpose. But it was “rocket science,” because Germany’s top rocket scientists, such as they were, worked on the development. After W.W.II, America and the Soviets competed for defecting German “rocket scientists,” and some (including him of the expedient allegiance) participated in our space program.

Drones serve the same purpose today: in Pakistan, IIRC, US drones have killed some 750 people, one-third of whom were civilians going about their daily nonmilitary business, most of whom were “militants” (uhm-hm, suuuure they were), and 20 of whom were “known” Taliban or Al Qaeda leaders. But no American dies when a drone crashes, or takes out a wedding party…

In other words, building an atomic bomb ain’t rocket science. Of course, the fact that an atomic bomb is supposed to blow up, and a rocket is supposed to *not* blow up, might be why rocket science is so much harder than making atomic bombs too ;).

Um… V-2? “Let me tell you the story of Wernher von Braun, / A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience…” (Tom Lehrer, “Wernher von Braun”)

In our tiny utility room, we’re forced to have a washing machine the size of a (tabletop) centrifuge.

You should be able to knock at least a year off that time-line, Badtux, with all of the documentaries and books around about the Manhattan Project. Anyone really interested can find out what actually worked which should reduce it to purely an engineering design exercise to match the requirements with the available capabilities in the country.

– Badtux the Engineer Penguin

🙂

but we don’t want to confuse things with facts

we don’t? i guess that leaves us with just snark then. WMD = WASHING MACHINES of DOOM!