Russia Tests Powerful ‘Dad of All Bombs’
MOSCOW - The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.
It was the latest show of Russia’s military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.
Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the “dad of all bombs” is four times more powerful than the U.S. “mother of all bombs.”
“The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability,” said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, he added.
The statement reflected the Kremlin’s efforts to restore Russia’s global clout and rebuild the nation’s military might while the ties with Washington have been strained over U.S. criticism of Russia’s backsliding on democracy, Moscow’s vociferous protests of U.S. missile defense plans, and rifts over global crises.
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.
Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it’s four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn’t identify.
While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon’s blast radius is 990 feet, twice as big as that of the U.S. design, the report said.
Like its U.S. predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a “thermobaric” weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature.
Thermobaric weapons work on the same principle that causes blasts in grain elevators and other dusty places - clouds of fine particles are highly explosive. Such explosions produce shock waves that can be directed and amplified in enclosed spaces such as buildings, caves or tunnels.
Channel One said that the temperature in the epicenter of the Russian bomb’s explosion is twice as high as that of the U.S. bomb.
The report showed the bomb dropped by parachute from a Tu-160 strategic bomber and exploding in a massive fireball. It featured the debris of apartment buildings and armored vehicles at a test range, as well as the scorched ground from a massive blast.
It didn’t give the bomb’s military name or say when it was tested.
Rukshin said the new bomb would allow the military to “protect the nation’s security and confront international terrorism in any situation and any region.”
“We have got a relatively cheap ordnance with a high strike power,” Yuri Balyko, head of the Defense Ministry’s institute in charge of weapons design, told Channel One.
Booming oil prices have allowed Russia to steadily increase military spending in recent years, and the Kremlin has taken a more assertive posture in global affairs.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin said he ordered the resumption of regular patrols of strategic bombers, which were suspended after the 1991 Soviet breakup.
© 2007 The Associated Press
At least it doesn’t leave radioactivity to kill future generations.
This is such a thrill; now humans can commit Eco friendly mass murder.
“It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature.”
“Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, he added.”
“I meant the environment on Mars,” he then corrected.
SWEET! This is just what the world needs. That explosion looks great for the environment!
Heck-of-a-job Bu$hCo for stirring up the Russian Bear….Even Noam Chomsky believes Bu$hCo are OBLaden’s greatest allies….
Oh I almost forgot…Global Warming got a much needed BOOST along and we are all fuc@#$%@$@$
Even if it doesn’t spread dangerous radioactive fallout, they still cannot guarantee it will not hurt the environment. Why? Because if they hit any target that ignites toxic chemicals they will burn and be spread by the wind and make people sick who were not the targets. I assume that is an environmental problem.
Doing a heck of a job Bushie!!
well I see all that intellectual higher brain function stuff was just a fad, it’s back to sticks and stones again.
Looks like killing ourselves could be the only way to save the planet.
Rukshin said the new bomb would allow the military to “protect the nation’s security and confront international terrorism in any situation and any region.”
Sweet Mythical Jesus!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starting to miss the Soviet Union.
But the big question is “Will they share it with Iran for their self-defense against the US?”
Russia and Central Asian Allies Conduct War Games in Response to US Threats (August 2006)
Barely acknowledged by the Western media, military exercises organized by Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan under the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, (CSTO) were launched on the 24th of August. These war games, officially tagged as part of a counter terrorism program, are in direct response to US military threats in the region including the planned attacks against Iran.
=====
Furthermore, what will China do if the US attacks Iran?
China and Iran, Ancient Partners in a Post-Imperial World
Iran’s nuclear aspirations increasingly dominate its relations with the United States and Europe. China remains one of Iran’s strongest allies on the Security Council, and also its most likely supplier of technology and assistance, built on decades of close economic and military relations.
Green bombs
The only explosive that could do that is depleted uranium. Since DU is said by all governments to be “safe”, there is no radioactive fallout.
The biggest lie since Bush’s mom denied she dropped him on his head the day he was born.
KEM PATRICK
there you are. i wondered what happened to you. this article was linked on another topic and i asked the question: so who will be the first to develop the BIGGEST bomb that will blow up the whole world.??? but where would they test it first.?????
DU isn’t an explosive, it basically replaces lead in large bullets. The reason they use it is because it’s heavy, it burns very hot when slammed against something at ballistic speeds and the hot slag cuts through steel like a knife through jello.
It is poisonous, it is radioactive (alpha radiation causes cancer when in contact with sensitive tissue) and it should be banned, but it’s not an explosive, they don’t make bombs from it, they make SHELLS from it.
That doesn’t invalidate your point KEM, I’m just trying to keep things realistic.
Well when you fuck with the bull your sure to get the horn.With Bush wanting new bases in Europe Russia better have some mussel.
How utterly sad…nations always seem to have money for weapons and wars - yet money to wage peace is not to be found.
If cynicism ever needs a new definition, evaluating weapons of mass-murder based on their ecological friendliness would probably qualify.
But anney has got it right I think, it’s part of a series of demonstrations and “leaks” of new Russian weaponry serving as political signs (that the window of opportunity is closing) and warnings against US/ Nato expansionist zeal.
Sounds like it will be on supermarket shelves soon.
Probably in the health food section, right next to organic juices.
Our missiles are still pointed in the direction of Russia.
SHOCK AND AWE,
Bushy would like to buy some for the next 4th celebration in Iran.
My, my, my. Does anybody in their right mind not expect Russia or any other country to defend themselves? After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians began dismantling some of their nukes, as we were supposed to do. At least on the surface it looked promising and most citizens of the world were happy the ‘cold war’ ended. We all looked forward to the ‘peace dividend’. But alas, that was not to be.
In six and a half years the illegally selected Texan has vitiated two hundred years of a decent system of government in order to establish a military police state with grandiose imperial ambitions. He sure is a ‘uniter’. With both parties supporting his measures as well as the military contractors and manufacturers, the international bankers, the Zionist lobby, the ‘Christian Taliban’ in this country and the ignorant folks who don’t vote or care about what’s happenining, arrogance and hubris rules the day.
I’m preachin’ to the choir” but for new readers of CD, this is it. With over 737 bases around the globe, the biggest war machine in the history of the world, what are the Russians to do but re-arm with even more potent weapons to counter our not so-subtle-threats. China is doing the same thing. Neither country can trust the United States anymore. When deliberate lies and misinformation becomes the modus operandi of a powerful nation like ours, militarily but not morally, the world shudders.
Was it Peter, Paul and Mary singing in a song, “When will they ever learn… when will they ever learn…”
America is probably the only country that doesn’t really have to worry about that bomb (or anything else Russia cooks up). The Caucauses, however, ought to be a little nervous.
Dammit KEM PATRICK, I’m hooked. I looked up DU on wikipedia and now I want to know more. Give us a good link to click on. I promise to be a good boy for a week or so.
I just can’t believe this fucking president, not only does he get us in two, possibly three unjustifiable wars, but he fucking stirs shit up again with russia.
If you want more info on why Putin is pissed, read this:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5939
Damon13,
This article has a number of DU links, plus a good deal more. It was written after Seymour Hersch wrote the expose about nuking Iran.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=OSB20060314&articleId=2093
BushCo has succeeded beyond its fondest dreams. The arms manufacturers were really upset when glasnost happened and the arms reduction treaties went into effect. With the end of the cold war, they might have to start manufacturing refrigerators and stoves. Not much profit in that.
Now, we have one of the most costly wars in history going on, the Carlyle Group is rolling in money and Cheney/Bush has managed to reignite the cold war. Think of the perpetual billions more that all the international arms manufacturers and dealers will make. It is all just business. Human quality of life, or life itself, has no value other than cannon fodder to feed the war machine. That is where the real profits are.
We the People are just ciphers now. Read Orwell’s 1984 again and look at the parallels. We even have thoughtcrime now, thanks to Congress. The thought police are learning as they go. The camps are waiting, thanks to Halliburton and KBR’s no-bid contracts.
As Winston Smith wrote,
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!
These bombs have no justifiable use whatsoever.
They should be labelled TERROR weapons.
Bigger Bombs
———–
And now there will have to be newer and bigger bombs developed by the US, because I dont think they are going to let Russia win any free points in the arms race.
That what “progress” is. More highways and car parks - and bigger bombs.
NEOMUNKT, you are correct, DU is not by itself an explosive, but it is used on our bunker buster bombs, DU is what creates the ultra hot fires. ‘THEROBOMARIC’ is the term and that’s from having a lot of burning DU.
Now what I don’t know is, will DU react to or cause an explosion to react more violently if shaped in a certain manner. I don’t know. When makng atomic weapons, the plutonium or enriched uranium is shaped in a specific form, then the final amount fired into that shape to create a critical mass and a resulting atonic or hydrogen explosion.
If mot stored properly at nuclear storage sites, DU can go critical all by itself. I understand some of our bunker buster bombs hold near 2,000 pounds of DU. That would be several trillion deadly
nano-particles of ionized DU blowing in the wind. If inhaled, one of those specks will kill a human_____or even a lobbyist.
The edit function didn’t work and so there are mis-spelled words on that prior blog.
Hi COCO, howzit goin? Are you staying out of trouble gal?
DAMON13, sounds like you are sober today, so I will reply to your easy question. First, just log onto any website and ask for ___depleted uranium__. There are over 400,000 pages to study on the subject. Wikipedia will primarily give you the neo-con opinions. They state DU is fairly harmless, and in solid form it is. Agencies such as WHO and others have not studied the effects of inhaling small particles of DU.
Ours and thirty other govennments deny DU is dangerous, now that it has been learned DU actually is very deadly and they have spread thousands of tons of it all over the planet, they are afraid to admit a mistake of such magnatude. There are more than 200 highly qualified doctors and or scientists, who state burned DU isotopes, ionzed nano-particles, smaller than a grain of pollen, will cause cancer if inhaled.
A nano-particle of DU is one millionth of a meter in diameter. If inhaled, it can cross the olfactory bulb and lodge in the brain. There it will bombard brain cells with over ten thousand times the amount of radiation allowed by a chest x-ray. Unlike an x-ray, it does not radiate for a second or two, it radiates forever and cancer will ensue. Next, cancerous cells often break off due to metastases and migrate to ANY part of the body and a new cancer factory develops. If lodged in the lung, cancer is also assured.
NATO sent a memo to all of their commanders, warning them, if troops inhale DU, they WILL be subject to many types of disease, including cancer and their DNA may be altered and deformed babies may result. The DOD produced a training film and a field manual for the troops and basically told them the same thing. Meanwhile, the Pentagon says DU is harmless.
When the government first used DU in weapons in the 1960s, it was not known that burned DU would be very dangerous for all life, down to the bacterial level. Now they don’t dare admit such a horrible error and they are attempting to cover it up in any way possible. ___ Ever hear of such a thing?
Check this website, one of over a million available. http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_howkilling.htm
I love it! eco friendly bomb!
Gee wiz! We can blow ourselves up and stil be green!
Everybody’s losin’ it.
Here we go! Isn’t this wonderful? This is the opening of the next episode of folly in that awaited series of shock and awe (perhaps the final one for human beings). If you liked “Cold Wars” — your gonna love “Global Warming Wars!” — starring George Bush as one of the “Great Fuse Lighters.”
Hey, you won’t even have to go out see this on — it’ll come directly to you — ‘er at you.
IMFEDUP so far, has posted about eight blogs here at CD. In at least four, he/she has disagreed with others, me in particular. Also, no useful information that would be of any benefit has been written by this person, where any of us could learn anything of use.
Not even humor, just “smart”, negative remarks.
COCO blieve it or not! Scientists have already develped a bomb ‘on paper’, that would blow up the entire world.
Did you know that during the final hours before they detonated the first atomic bomb in New Mexico, the scientists were takng bets, betting if it would, or would not, ignite the atmosphere and kill everything on the planet? Two of them thought the chain reaction might never stop until the entire universe had exploded. Did that stop them from pulling the trigger? Of course not, ___ they were scientists. ____ Amazing!!!
Neomunk said “DU isn’t an explosive”. Actually, it depends on how it’s used. DU is an extremely heavy metal (50% heavier than lead), so a ballistic of given size packs a bigger punch if it contains DU; it’s also an extremely hard material (equivalent to tungsten), so it has great penetrating properties. A shell made from DU slices through armoured plating like butter, and can penetrate through more than 10m of concrete (hence its use in “bunker buster” bombs during the US invasion of Iraq).
However, another wonderful property of DU is that it’s “pyrophoric”: when finely powdered, it spontaneously ignites and burns when exposed to oxygen. When a DU shell hits its target, the heat from the combined high-velocity impact and subsequent explosion causes the DU to vaporise and ignite, providing an additional explosive charge. And an efficient dispersal mechanism for highly radioactive dust.
Now, when you’re looking for a suitable material to make a fuel-air explosive (also known as a thermobaric weapon), you want something that burns in air. Fuel vapour (eg gasoline) has been a favorite: create a vapour cloud and ignite it, and you get a huge explosion with a devastating shock wave - in fact, a more powerful blast than you get from a low-yield nuclear weapon.
It’s only wild hypothesis, but perhaps the Russians have decided that DU might be a suitable “fuel”: just provide a mechanism to disperse it in a finely powdered form, and BOOM. Hmmm…. Maybe a small thermobaric bomb might to the trick?
During the Vietnam war in the late 60s, a few times some large bombs were loaded on F-4s at Korat. When the bombs were brought out to the flightline, everything shut down; EVERYTHING, all MD-3 power units, all aircraft engines on other aircraft, all gas turbine power plants and no smoking was allowed anyplace until those armed aircraft took off. What was it? We never knew, but we were certain that someone was gonna be in big trouble.
Now I believe they were ‘possibly’ DU bunker busters. I dunno? I also believe some of the medical problems blamed on Agent Orange then, were also the result of using DU bombs and shells. One falsehood about DU is the shells are tipped with DU, some were originally, but now, most are solid DU. A tank’s shell has ten pound of DU, a 30mm Gatling gun shell is 3.5 pounds of DU. There are trillons of specks of that deadly poison in our atmosphere now. One speck is all it takes to kill a kid.
Kem,
Several of the previous posters are right. Depleted uranium is not an explosive. Finely divided, it will burn but it does not explode. It cannot be made into a nuclear detonation.
As I understand it (and I am not an expert), our superbomb works by dispersing propane in a large area and then igniting it. It is an extrordinarily effective weapon for blast/heat (thermobaric) effects. Why the Russians would want a similar but larger weapon is beyond me, unless it is a penis envy type response.
“a penis envy type response”
Indeed. Kind of like the 50-megaton “Ivan” or “tsar bomba” tested by the Soviets in 1961, four times the highest yield US nuclear test.
“the first time as tragedy, the second as farce”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2046393742348211186
DU Dudes: You don’t know what you’re talking about. DU is pyrophoric, but it makes a really shitty fuel, extremely heavy for the amount of energy released by burning. You want light elements, particularly nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon, for explosives or any kind of burning fuel. The MOAB does not contain DU, and it’s a safe bet that neither does the Russian daddy.
Hi ya Kem!
Obviously you don’t love me anymore!
That’s OK but hey, look around you! Theirs nothing but negative remarks from everyone and not a shred of useful science (except fo neomunk”DU”… you are not included in this rant) or reasoning for a solution.
It’s ” I hate (insert a person, party, government or corporation here) and add the latest rumor of a Super Dark Evil Conspiracy to enslave or kill the human race…. and Bingo!!! Instant paranoid Eschatology (For those who don’t have a dictionary it means the study of the end of the world - real or divine). You guys (and girls) bitch and moan and whine and write us all off and live your lives in utter misery and you know what? I think you enjoy it. You all get your rush from crises real or imagined.
Is this planet constantly changing? Yes. Does humanity have problems? Yes. Do Governments do dumb things? Yes. Do Governments do smart things? Yes. Is there good in this world? Yes. Is there Evil? You better believe it. Do people in general try to help one another? Yes. Does that mean we can save everbody? No. (See Planet, Government, Evil) Does it mean we should stop trying? No. So there you have it. As long as people can help one another in their time of need, we as a whole will survive and prosper. So go live and pray for armageddon because that is all you live for, hoping you can rub our noses in it. Right now I’m going to watch the ocean have a drink and enjoy the short time (cosmically speaking) I have on this miracle of the universe.
p.s. evan_viewer don’t bother trying to break it all down and analyze it with your pseudo-intellectual nonsense. You must have better things to do.
Hi Billy, yeah I’ve already agreed DU by itself is not explosive, but when used in a bomb it enhanses the explosion. It’s not a nuclear bomb, but the type of radiation released is far far worse than that from an atomic weapon. A different type of radiation hazard and much loger lasting, about nine billion years, versus a relatively short time frame for an atomic bomb. For example, it was safe to live in Hiroshama or Nagasaki two years after the bombs were dropped. It will never be safe to live in Baghdad. Also read the blog here given by DYSPHORIA, very good information and correct info also.
To Vera Gottlieb…
“How utterly sad…nations always seem to have money for weapons and wars How utterly sad…nations always seem to have money for weapons and wars…”
We finance the MIC (”military industrial complex”) with debt spending. The United States currently has an accumulated debt of over $9 trillion. This National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.47 billion per day since September 29, 2006, mostly due to the cost of military expenditures. It’s a form of taxation, levied mostly on the middleclass, for the benefit of the warfare state that now exists and prospers in this nation.
Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Taylor in 1798 which read, “I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars could be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas.”
MARK ABRAM, thanks for the DUDE handle, I always liked the term, ____ before I turned 70. Don’t know if you are an expert on DU ammo and bombs, but if you care to check depleted weapons on the internet, you will find experts who state that DU bunker busters are used and the DU is not only for penetration. There are also bunker busters and the 20,000 pound cave busters and chopper landing zone types I’ve dropped in Vietnam from C-130s, that had no DU.
So, check it out ___ and again, the comments written here by DYSPHORIA are appropriate. I do believe you should not tell someone they don’t know what they are talking about, unless you can prove it. In this case, ___ you cannot, because you are wrong.
“You make your bed, you sleep in it.” We can only hope and pray that W and Deadeye are truly not in charge. Prez Moron and VP Moron, wouldn’t do their duty in military but have the gall to send our youngsters and some oldsters to die because of their greed, powerhunger, and total lack of anything remotely related to the military. The total and utter lack of any ethics or empathy is simply unacceptable. We MUST vote all the charlatans in DC OUT!!! How sad such a wealthy nation has sunken to the bottom of the gutter out of greed. Voters please see through the hypocrisy and vote for someone who at least has a triple digit IQ and the language skills necessary to use diplomacy to attempt to solve the problems we now face. Just because one calls himself the “decider” does not mean he has the cojones to decide rationally.
Hi IMFEDUP, never did love you,___ might if you’re a gal with beautiful eyes and pretty too.
I don’t see all negative remarks here. Do you actually see that all comments here are negative? That my dear is a sign of sickness, and possibly one who as a child, was severly harmed in some manner. I see you are somewhat intelligent and have an excellent way with big words that few ever use. You are not stupid.
You misunderstand me at least, I love my life, women, fun, sex, poker, an occasional beer, or a double VO and coke. Don’t use any mind altering drugs and love to go fishing or boating on the ocean. Love to Scuba and snorkel. The problem there now is, it is impossible to take an undersea photo anyplace, without having a piece of plastic float across the camera lens.
I worry a little about our polluting the entire planet with deadly nuclear waste that kills everything, including microbes and also alters DNA. Our vital to all life phytoplankton are dying off at an alarming rate and no one knows the reason. Armageddon? No, I don’t think along those lines, but I do know we are killing the planet and many don’t wish to believe it. Jacques Costeau was a family friend and he was a very smart fella. He warned us that we had about 80 to 100 years left in 1975, if we didn’t stop polluting the oceans with chemicals and atomic waste.
Yeah I may sound negative at times, because the use of DU for any reason is negative, there is nothing good to say about it. It is a strictly ‘man made’ poison as is plutonium and their dumping can kill all life on this beautiful blue and white water planet. The only water planet known to exist in the entire universe. So imfedup, enjoy yourself and don’t worry, but if you were a child and knew what we adults were doing to your future, you may have a far different opinion about some of us.
ARMS RACE II! ARMS RACE II! ARMS RACE II!
This is going to be awesome.
Great,
Who else wants to join the mad dogs that never seem to get tired of creating new and interesting ways to decimate all life on this planet?
Now my money is on the silverbacks, they are working on a plan to demo everything!
Get your paws off me you filthy neocon.
Just get it over with. No wait.. let’s fly nukes over our country first, then get it over with.
Imfedup,
Kem has appointed himself special agent Homeland Security for CommonDreams. If he deems you are unfit to post your opinion, it’s because he suffers from memory lapses. He doesn’t love me anymore either. He’s making his list. WATCH OUT! You might get a knock on your door! He spies on us all from his archive reconnaissance clicker.
the only defense that vulnerable third world countries have against super power bullies is to go nuclear. At least the threat of radiation that can last for generations will be adequate deterrence, as everybody knows that poor people can reproduce much more rapidly.
All right, enough is enough! Do any of you who are putting KEM down for doing his civic & moral duty, by trying to educate people about this insidious weapon known as DU, have anything positive to say? From looking at the ’stats’ page you will see he has posted on CD over 1500 times, and because I have done quite a bit of study (and writing) about nuclear issues (and DU), I know he has sought out even the most obscure articles on the subject.
It is your DUTY to speak out against the criminal use of the DU weapon of mass destruction. One reason KEM is so tenacious in this regard is because he lives in Arizona, likes seeing birds around his home, has a tank firing range near him, and has visibly noticed a decrease in the bird population locally. He also was 23 years in the military so he knows a bit about that mindset, system, and way of thinking.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that even if you might not like the message DON’T SLAY THE MESSENGER. That’s a Karl Rove tactic and not one any decent human being will choose to use. Do your homework on these important issues (a Google search brings up 1,750,000 mentions of depleted uranium); read with the eye of a skeptic, but don’t become cynical. As a fine musician friend of mine is fond of saying, “If you don’t have anything good to add to the song…don’t play.”
Easy there Mr. Smith, we all love Kem, even if he cannot return our affection. I’ve been reading Kems entries and have probably agreed with most everything he’s said. It’s when he starts playing special agent man, digging up our past posts, taking them out of context, and trying to smear us for expressing our differences on occasion. Now, if that isn’t Rovian tactics, Mr. Smith, I haven’t been watching him closely enough for the last seven years.
So bring on the Bush Pole Czech rocket “defense” shield. Ras Putin is ready and will no doubt be soon testing his fat bastard in Grozny or maybe Warsaw and Prague if those ex commies decide to expand their sell out to the (evaporating) greenback and bring the benefits of amerikan “technology” to the Rusky back yard. You know what the Euros call NATO; North Amerikan Terror Organization!
Now imagine Ras Putin pulling that shit in Chihuahua or Sonora. Those rednecks running ‘merkan forn policy would surely get their daisy cutters and assorted fireworks ready in a flash.
It is perennial amerikan militarism that is fueling all this shit in the first place.
IMFEDUP
what you fed up about then?? what does your name say about you?? i do not live my life in misery. i am one of the happiest, fun loving, laughing people you will find on this planet. however, i am a REALIST. and the reality tells me we have devastated this beautiful earth with our greed for things that cannot bring us happiness. i help people and animals less fortunate than myself but unfortunately the majority of capitalists are blinded by their selfishness and unwillingness to acknowledge the state this planet is in. so they build more bombs to knock each other out with. and we have tried to voice our opinions against this, but we are powerless. the governments do not listen. they control us. we are impotent. so we come here to support each other in our frustration. we do not wish for armageddon but we can see it approaching. and we care, and that’s why we talk about it. call it moaning, whining, bitching if you like, but it’s all we have. we are the minority. and until the rest realize the real truth then we are doomed.
DU is not an “enhanced” explosive rather a heavy effective penetrator that however, ignites on impact (from the kinetic energy) and by so oxidising, release approx 70% by weight as a very fine dust. Rest is larger fragments.
Fine dust penetrates v deeply into lungs, possibly even straight through into blood if small enough.. Also ingested.. It accumulates and irradiates all the tissues around it.. The T1/2 you know..
This is such a filthy crime against humanity to have even thought about, let alone actually building the f#$%ing stuff.
And then to use it all over the place… My god-delusion..
What a crime, what utter stupidity..
A quick bullet is far far too good for the knutz who thought this particular barbarity up..
DU and Agent Orange sprang from the Manhattan Project which originated the first atomic bomb. Gee, don’t those guys have a lot to be proud of?
If you would like to see something about the worst crime against humanity try a Google search of: Kissinger depopulation.
The intent is to depopulate the world (and especially the Middle East) by 2 BILLION PEOPLE. What better way than by constant warfare, DU usage, and a denial of the need to reduce CO2 emissions?
What I fail to comprehend (and maybe someone can help explain to this stupid old hippie) is after worldwide radiation poisoning from DU & groups intent on detonating nuclear devices, and atmospheric collapse from a runaway greenhouse effect, just where do these greedy corrupt corporate bastards think they (their families & future offspring) plan to live?
Oh, (I guess I really am stupid) I forgot…some fictional place in the sky after the ‘Rupture’. See, I can’t even spell…’Rapture’. Either spelling the result is the same…pain in the cajones.
As twisted as this new eco-bomb is i’ll just share something a little positive.
As I walked down the road yesterday the sun broke through the clouds I passed an old man on a bench I turned, smiled and said, “Hello, nice day” he smiled in return and said, “Hello, you too enjoy this day”. A little later I passed a pretty women on the street she turned to me smiled and said, “Hello, wonderfull day” I smiled then laughed and said, “Yes it is”.
It’s the little things sometimes that make this life beautifull, as a wise women said to me recently, “All everyone needs is a little love and compassion”.
Ahh my usual cynicism was defeated for a small while at least.
Thanks to the Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate for starting another Cold War with their aggression and pre-emptive wars. Just what we need. For September, it’s been hot here in Alaska these past few days. Global warming, here we come!
“All everyone needs is a little love and compassion”
Don’t think that will quite cut it with the necromongering ghouls, undead neo-cone heads and sundry filth that infest the charnel house and crypts of the amerika war machine, amerikan politics and media. Nah…not really, dude!
Removing that pile of trash will take some hard work and nobody will be left smiling before the crap is buried deep in some toxic landfill.
Lovely idea, smiling girl, old man, just missing was the friendly little kid pumping his tire.
All the same… have a nice day while you still can!
…”like a Mafia enforcer. Recently, a new report stated that for the first time the US has a military presence in l00 countries.”
Overtly amerika militarism has infected upwards of 120 countries and the convert presence of the amerikan war machine with bagmen, hitmen and sundry goodfellas, all the mafia corporate structure hasn’t left a nation untouched.
“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933 by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC
A couple of points to ponder:
Since the US-Russian relations are now strained, the Mother of All Bombs and the Dad of All Bombs cannot marry legally, their offspring would be called Bastard of All Bombs.
Russia claims that the bomb is relatively cheap. Yeh, right. Even 7.8 tons of feces that can be used as fertilizer is not cheap.
Hey Ruthie, and Fedup, I don’t go to the archives to check anyone out, I go there to read my posts and noted you two are on my case for some reason. Sorry, if you thougth I didn’t love you, I love all humans and animals and just about everything. I especially love girls, an inherited trait, my great grandfather was Hiram Smith.
Anyway, thank you Paul for the support and Coco for the appropriate comments. We do have problems on this world of ours and most are due to stupidity and greed by some of humanity. DU is one of our worst problems and all I wish to do, is advertise it and perhaps if enough of us finally protest, its use will be stopped.
BTW Ruthie, how did you monitor me for seven years? I’ve only been posting here for less than three months.
War has been obsolete for a long time now. We need a new peace movement to come together and agree that killing people does not accomplish anything. We need to learn to live in peace with our friends and neighbors from around the world. I propose inviting 10 million people to come to a world summit meeting to learn consensus decision making and set directions for the new millenium, a billion years of peace on earth. http://www.worldsummitmeeting.org/ (site under construction)
KEM PATRICK
maybe ruthie means when you used to be evelyn smith…..ha ha ha………
or maybe you are being monitored elsewhere………………..see any strange creatures in your bushes recently?????????
KEM PATRICK September 12th, 2007 7:10 pm :
“If mot (sic)stored properly at nuclear storage sites, DU can go critical all by itself. I understand some of our bunker buster bombs hold near 2,000 pounds of DU. That would be several trillion deadly
nano-particles of ionized DU blowing in the wind. If inhaled, one of those specks will kill a human_____or even a lobbyist.”
This will never happen. DU is short for Depleted Uranium, so called because it is depleted in the U-235 isotope. That isotope, which is removed for the production of nuclear weapons, is the one which will “go critical”. Its removal leaves nearly pure U-238, which is a non-fissile (can’t achieve criticality, therefore no explosions) isotope. It is however still toxic, pyrophoric and blessed with an extraordinarily long half-life, so it is anything but innocuous. It is in fact quite deadly, just not due to any inherent tendencies to “go critical”.
For Ruthru and Fedup: Many of us have learned various things of value from KEM PATRICK on Common Dreams since they began the comments section some months ago. I don’t always agree with KEM or other writers on this site and I know many readers don’t agree with my posts either, but I wouldn’t ridicule or slander those writers. Unlike some folks, I won’t go back and forth hurling diatribes with opponents of my position or I with theirs. But I do compliment people when something they write, makes an impression on me.
What is needed more than anything in my opinion, is group synchronization in taking back our country, not personal attacks, unless that is part of the ‘divide and conquer’ agenda that some may use.The ’swift boat’ tactics.
Keep writing, brother KEM. You are doing the right thing by saying the right thing!
Salia: Thank you for a very hearty laugh. The Bastard of All Bombs is terrific! How witty.
Jay Dee, you are badly mis-informed! Depleted uranium or DU, means ONLY that the rods have been ‘partially’ depleted and are no longer suitable for fuel in a nuclear reactor. They still have plenty of uranium #235 in them and trace amounts of plutonium, that is the danger. Check it out, those are not MY scientific observations. There has alredy been an accident where stored DU rods almost went critical and a disaster was prevented by a matter of minutes. Google nuclear accidents, ___ scary reading.
When DU rods are transferred to the Hartford facility for example, to extract all of the #235 isotopes, the uranium #238 may have no 235 in it. That type of DU is not what is being used for weapons. There are hundreds of thousands of tons of DU ’safely’ stored, far far more than ever needed for nuclear weapons.
KEM,
Jay-Dee has got it pretty straight.
Depleted uranium, meaning uranium having less than 0.4% U-235 in it, cannot go critical. It cannot almost go critical.
If you eat or inhale enough of it, it will poison you or give you cancer. If you make it into a bullet it will poke a hole in you.
If it has trace contaminants in it, like plutonium or technicium, it can make you sicker or give you cancer faster. It will poke the same size hole in you.
Very slightly depleted uranium (0.5 or 0.6% U-235) could be made to go critical in a Canadian style reactor because they use heavy water. This could also be done with a high purity graphite pile (as was done with the first nuclear reactor). These are very special instances using exotic materials.
Depleted uranium (or natural uranium) does not pose a risk of accidental criticality. Enriched uranium does pose a criticality risk and those facilities having liscenses for enriched uranium are trained and tested for safe handling procedures.
There have been criticality accidents but they have all involved enriched uranium or plutonium. The most recent that I am aware of is the Tokai-mura fuel plant in Japan in 1999.
The Hanford facility, when it was operating, did not extract U-235. After exposure in a reactor, they chemically extracted Pu-239 from the uranium. The uranium that came out of the reactor was lower in U-235 than when it went in because of fissioning.
Regards,
Bill
Kem,
The seven years was reference to Karl, not you.
Love,
Ruthie
You good lokin Ruthie? Of course you are,___ all girls are.
Billy, why do you keep it up? You know that DU is deadly when ionized and if any microscopic particles are inhaled.
You are quoting the same stuff spewed out by the government, who did not know the medical hazards of burned DU when they decided to take that poison and use it for weapons, instead of storing it as had been assured would be done.
I read a lengthy report by asking for Nuclear power plant accidents, that indeed depleted uranium rods which were improperly stored began to heat up and start a meltdown. Perhaps the report is faulty, but it was prepared and published by people who should know the facts.
I only mentioned Hanford as an example of a facility that did produce the necessay materials for nuclear weapons. I was not aware of exactly what they did there. I know the place is an enviromental disaster. How could that have happened, since the atomic waste is so carefuly handled and so damn harmless?
Hey Coco, don’t tell them I had a sex change operation, I only did it so I could parrelell park my car.
.
.
. I’d better let everyone know that is a bad joke, I’ve always been a boy.
Billy, are you or anyone else prepared to state, that this big Russian ‘clean’ bomb, does not contain DU? Is anyone prepared to state, many of our bunker buster bombs do not contain DU?
Billy just wrote a long blog, with wording to deny DU weapons are deadly, unless one is struck by a DU bullet. He is very adept at confusing the issue and denying DU is deadly.
The issue is, I’d wadger that big Russian bomb has a lot of DU in it and when DU is burned it is one of the most deadly poisons known to exist in the universe. Only one other may be deadlier and that is also a ‘man made’ waste, from using uranium for fuel in nuclear power plants.__ That is, plutonium.
There is trace uranium all over the world, in the dirt, water, rocks, the air. We injest some uranium every day of our lives. It’s NOT ionized DU particles from burned ammunition we should be injesting.
Kem,
The reason I “keep it up” is that I don’t like erroneous information going unchallenged.
I do not deny that either the toxic effect of uranium or the radiation effect can either sicken or kill you if you are internally contaminated. Our opinions differ on the amount of internal contamination necessary to do this.
You have experts that you believe. I have experts that I believe. Your experts tend to be NGOs. My experts tend to be governmental and intergovernmental organizations.
The organizations that have the most resources and the most motivation to resolve our difference of opinion are organizations that you would immediately suspect as part of a conspiracy to hide the truth. These are the US Department of Veterans Affairs (and the British counterpart), the World Health Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
I do not work for the Russian agency that designed this weapon, nor for the US agency that designed the MOAB. I do know that DU is not an explosive and there would not be any reason to have DU in these weapons. Both of these weapons would be most effective against surface targets that are not protected by something like a tank. Both would be very effective against civilian cities or congregated infantry.
I believe the bunker buster is a different weapon from the MOAB. It is not intended to attack surface targets. I believe there are two different approaches on bunker busters.
The first is, I assume, a heavy metal penetrator. It probably is DU. It would be air dropped and rocket propelled to a very high velocity. It works by penetration into the protective material overlaying a bunker. It would work very much like striking a tank with a DU round, penetrating and scattering ignited uranium shards around the penetrated area. It would be like an antitank DU round but very much larger and thus have more penetrating power.
The second bunker buster is a nuclear weapon. It is delivered so that it goes underground and detonates. This would create a tremendous shock wave and destroy the bunker with that wave.
George the 2nd was very frustrated during the bombing of Iraq, prior to the invasion, that Iraqis had bunkers well enough protected that our military was unable to destroy them. It is my opinion that this is the driver behind both of these bunker busters.
I do not know the deployment status of either of these weapons. I know that congress has frustrated Bush from conducting nuclear testing to support a new warhead design.
Billy, much of our ammunition is now DU, it is the weapon of choice. We even have pistol and rifle DU ammo. Bunker buster bombs do have DU, several hundred pounds in some. The specks are availabe on the internet. I never heard we have used any nuclear bunker busters. We have used many of the DUers in Iraq and Afganastan.
W.H.O. has not addressed the issue of inhaled ceramic oxide DU or nano-particles. The department of defense and head of NATO have warned all commanders of the danger and issued trainig manuals for the troops that state, inhaling ANY DU particles may reault in cancer and or altering DNA. They also produced a film that gave the same information. At the same time our government, including the VA, deny DU is dangerous. Why the conflict there?
Has anyone ever heard of a government coverup about anything? How about the Agent Orange deal for just one of many. How about denying DU was used on military firing ranges in Hawaii, the government was caught lying. Why lie if DU is harmless? There are far too many highly regarded doctors, who state that ANY ceramic oxide DU in the body WILL cause cancers. You believe th government papers I will not until they prove DU ceramic oxide particles are not dangerous and so far they refuse to do so, they won’t even discuss it.
The information they do offer is so outdated and lacking in debth or scientific medical data, that it is almost laughable, yet some WANT or choose to believe it.
Your arguments of if DU is explosive is not really the issue, I have already agreed here an a long ago blog it is not. I say it enhances the explosion by creating tremendous heat, it is better in that regard than gasoline. THERMOBARIC is the term. For one thing, DU burns hotter and longer. At the same time it is an excellent penetrator, so you kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Have ou ever seen a 2,000 pound bunkeer buster bomb? They are much smaller in size than a WW11 750 pounder. It’s the DU that makes them heavy ___ and most effective also.
Neither you or I know if the Russians have figured out how to pack DU so it makes a large explosion more effective. I have To sign off now for a few days. Have fun.
I do hope that last one edits. My eyesight is horrible on this screen.