Left I on the News

The Los Angeles Times reports on thousands of scientists who have been deployed across the country to routinely search for "dirty" (and regular) nuclear bombs. They not only have the capability (in the right circumstances, obviously) to dismantle such devices, but are also allegedly being deployed for deterrence:

If a bomb detonates, fallout can be analyzed to identify the terrorists and their state sponsors. A retaliatory strike could be the response.

The idea is to force other nations to take better care of their own nuclear fuels or else find themselves in the cross hairs of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Really? So if the nuclear material comes from Britain or France, the U.S. is going to drop nuclear bombs on those countries? Or even Russia, who, lest we forget, has their own deterrent, namely, they would respond to any nuclear strike with one of their own on the U.S.

The whole idea borders on the ludicrous. Merely because nuclear material was identified as, say, Russian in origin, wouldn't be the slightest proof that Russia was a "state sponsor" of whomever set off the bomb. Conversely, the lack of any "nuclear fingerprint" identifying any particular country wouldn't be the slightest deterrent to the U.S. deciding they should bomb Iran, or North Korea, or whatever other country was in the cross-hairs at the moment, as was proven so clearly to the world in the case of the invasion of Iraq (and, by the way, was also demonstrated in the invasion of Afghanistan, whose government had, as far as is known, not the slightest involvement in the events of 9/11).