PLEASE NOTE THE DATE – AT 7:47 P.M. ET:  Today marks the 65th anniversary of the era of nuclear weapons.  The world's first "nuke" was set off on this date in 1945, in the New Mexico Desert.  Called the "Trinity Test," the event forever changed the level of destruction possible in warfare. 

Only weeks later, on August 6th, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.  Three days after that, a second was dropped on Nagasaki.  On August 14th, Japan surrendered.  An Asian/Pacific war that had begun some 14 years earlier with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria took less than a week to bring to a close.

Much has been written about our use of the bomb, a lot of it by revisionist "historians" eager to discredit the United States.  To my knowledge, none of these scribes had lived in a Pacific foxhole, or had been slated to be a soldier in the invasion of Japan, had the war not ended abruptly.

One point, though, is often overlooked by commentators, and it is relevant to today:  The core of the bomb was carried to the test site in the back of a car.  The entire explosive "device" – and this was 1945, please remember – could be placed in the back of a small truck. 

Today we're being sold a bill of goods that it will take Iran a certain number of years to have an "operational" nuclear weapon that can be placed on the tip of a missile.  Such an "operational" device is not necessary.  A rudimentary gadget, like the one we exploded 65 years ago today, could simply be placed in the hold of a ship, sailed into an American harbor, and set off by a suicide team.  Or, parts can be smuggled into a target city.  I worry that it isn't only illegal labor being transported across our Mexican border. 

So, when you think of the nuclear threat to America, think not only of a sleek missile with a nuclear warhead.  Think of a crude device, using wires patched together with tape, easily transported in sections, and producing a blast so great that it can be felt hundreds of miles away.  This isn't fear mongering.  That's what happened 65 years ago. 

July 16, 2010