At 10:58 PM 4/3/03 +1200, Peter Gutmann wrote: ..
The Wall of Stalin: Detonate a string of dirty nukes along the Iraqi border with Kuwait/Saudi Arabia. Suddenly Dubya decides there are much better places to play soldiers, he'll look at the Iraqi thing again in 6,000 years or so.
This only works if your attackers have to use the land route. Bombing and airlifting troops lets you leap right over the barrier. For that matter, I'll bet troops in modern tanks and APCs wouldn't be exposed to too much radiation in a dash across even a really dangerously radioactive zone. (Though I suppose if you're smart, you set up mines and barriers in the radioactive zone, and artillery and fortifications on its inside edge, with the goal of forcing your invaders to spend as much time as possible out there. But maintaining your fortifications inside the zone will be a serious pain!)
I've heard that people driving through the area contaminated by Chernobyl are just told to roll up the windows and drive fast, but I don't know if that's true, or how much good it does you. (And there's a big difference between an acceptable level of risk to soldiers in a war, and an acceptable risk to random civilians in peacetime.)
Peter.
--John Kelsey, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
