Read and weep! Isn't this what Margaret Atwood was talking about in "The Handmaid's Tale" ? Radiation like this would cause huge decreases in fertility and genetic mutation..  Look at what has happened in Russia in the 'nuclear cities' - its not some kind of theory.. we know it.. its established fact.

Wouldn't it make more sense to stop being so hyperaggressive so we were less of an attractive target for terrorists, even if it meant the US wasn't the global military power it is? The right keeps saying that the terrorists hate us because we are democratic, but I think the real reasons are much more complicated.

We could start by being less aggressively punitive and vindictive.. And being more honest to our own people about our own history..

Lets not start wars as distractions, either.. We can't afford the costs that dirty bombs would bring.. in human terms, to our cities..

---quotes below----

"The Homeland Security Department, preparing for an attack by terrorists who would spread radioactive material, advised government officials on Tuesday that they should consider permitting people to re-occupy contaminated land and buildings even if they would be exposed to radiation at a level double what nuclear plant workers can legally receive.
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The department published a document that stressed trying to balance the health risk of radiation exposure with minimizing the disruption that a "dirty bomb" would cause.

If there is a delay in reoccupying areas evacuated because of contamination, "the disruption and harm caused by the incident could be inadvertently and unnecessarily increased," the department advised. "Failure to restore important services rapidly could result in additional adverse public health and welfare impacts that could be more significant than the direct radiological impacts."

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"The document issued Tuesday lists a variety of factors, including the cost of cleanup. Mr. Hirsch and a second antinuclear group, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said that the 10 rem figure would produce cancer or leukemia in one person in four who was exposed to that amount annually for a total of 30 years. The two groups called the advice "a nuclear Katrina in the making."

The department characterized its advice as a draft, because, it said, it would take public comment until March 6, but the advice takes effect immediately."