[Kosh]

In plain terms, some people think that Ahmadeninjhad might be planning to nuke Jerusalem on that day... or at least try to.

With what? He doesn't have "The Bomb".

[Sandwich]

I certainly hope you're right. But what if they watched one too many 80's Hollywood movies, got the idea it might actually work, and went and aquired an old Russian nuke somehow?

[vyper]

Damn, it's never felt so good to live so far away from the sunny parts of the world...

[Ferret]

It's the fiiinal countdooooown doo da dooo dooo da la dooo doo doooooo

[aldo_14]

I certainly hope you're right. But what if they watched one too many 80's Hollywood movies, got the idea it might actually work, and went and aquired an old Russian nuke somehow?

Do you really think a fascistic ultra-fundamentalist Islamic nutcase would take tips from hollywood? 

[Col. Fishguts]

Kim Jong-Il is quite fond of Hollywood movies ...

[Ferret]

Kim Jong-Il is quite fond of Hollywood movies ...

OH YEAH HOW YOU WIKE THAT HANS BRIX DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FWUKING BUSY I AM HANS BRIX

[Colonol Dekker]

Oohhh, political miscorrectnessity.......

[an0n]

The only funny part of that film was the panthers.

[Rand al Thor]

Them and ;

"MAAAAAHHT DHHHAAAAAMONNNNNNNNN!"

[Colonol Dekker]

.................................*Squeeeeeeee*





NOT

[Sandwich]

Two.

Iran began major war exercises the other day, to last 5 weeks IIRC. I've also been hearing various rumors around, the most persistent one being that Iran has 3 suitcase nukes they plan on detonating on Aug 22nd in Washington DC, New York City, and Jerusalem. Sounds like nothing more than a rumor to me - the type of rumor that always crops up every few years revolving around whichever Evil Dictator™ has media focus at the time. Still, it has a slightly more legitimate tone this time around, purely due to the whole Aug. 22nd thing. To quote a character 75% of us are probably familiar with, "Time vill tell... sooner or later.... time vill tell."

[Flipside]

Most of those suitcase nukes would need a fair bit of work to prime nowadays to be honest, whilst the bomb may still be 'live', the half-life of most detonators is only about a decade, so I suspect those suitcase bombs would, even if Iran had one, be in no fit state to use without work. Though, yeah, I agree that sounds more like 'bloke down the pub' stuff.
I don't think Iran would be crazy enough to do something like that with a missile either, I don't think he has a missile that could penetrate Israels' Air defences anyway. Rockets are one thing, but Israel has Patriot systems or the like iirc? They can't deal with Rockets but they've proven to be very effective against the older, larger missiles. Besides, this time you'd know which direction it was coming from.

To be honest, if he was crazy enough to try this, I think you'd be surprised at the rest of the Middle East's response.

[Sandwich]

The Patriot? Don't make me laugh. The Patriots anti-missle batteries are the worst at what they (don't) do I've ever seen. If we had the funding (thank you, government... ), we'd be able to have widespread, effective defensive measures, such as the Arrow I/II and the Nautilus.

[Flipside]

I know the Patriot proved pretty useless against faster missiles, but I don't see Iran being able to get together a missile that would be particuarly hard to shoot down. Arrow or Nautilus would be better, I'd admit.

[Sandwich]

The Patriot did next to nothing in the Gulf War (1991)... do Scuds qualify as "faster missles"?

[Flipside]

Nope Scuds are pretty slow, sort of like the Volkswagon Beetles of the Missile fraternity They were massively media-pushed during the Gulf War, though I knew there was technical difficulties and they weren't as reliable as they were made out to be, but I still got the impression they weren't a total failure.
Still, you guys have been using them for longer, so you'd probably have a better idea. The UK still uses the Sea Wasp as Anti-Missile defences on its ships, oddly enough, damn good system, though it helps if you turn on your radar (HMS Sheffield, take note).

[Col. Fishguts]

The Patriot? Don't make me laugh. The Patriots anti-missle batteries are the worst at what they (don't) do I've ever seen. If we had the funding (thank you, government... ), we'd be able to have widespread, effective defensive measures, such as the Arrow I/II and the Nautilus.

Are those wicked laser-based defence systems still under development ? I saw a test run a while back, where it took down a mortar round inflight. It's supposed to do the same to the Katjushas.

Or were the things too expensive after all ?

[Sandwich]

One.

The Nautilus is (IIRC) the laser-based anti-missle thingy. The Arrow I and II are the anti-missile missiles. From what I remember, they're hypersonic; capable of intercepting Scuds while still over Iraqi soil. And they have a very high success rate, too.

[Bobboau]

it's the time, for you atleast.
zero.
nothing happened... gasp.