I once knew a guy who'd worked in the coderoom of a triton-class (I think) sub during the Gulf War. At least that's what he *said* -- seemed a bit loopy, to be honest, but so does everyone I know who's worked on a sub -- anyhow, he claimed that at one point during the air campaign, nuclear warning satellites detected what appeared to be a 2 kiloton airburst directly over Kuwait. It took about 20 minutes for everyone to finally figure out that Kuwait had *not* in fact been nuked, and that it was most likely a small comet airbursting in the stratosphere, as they are often wont to do. But this was apparently enough to fool the nuclear warning birds, and it was enough to cause *quite* a commotion in the coderoom. According to my source, the defcon level was actually bumped up for about 15 minutes, to the point where nuclear missiles could've been launched at the word "go".

Maybe this is a loon's story, but still, it was enough to give me pause. Imagine if that comet had been large enough to punch through to the ground in 1991-- or imagine how drastic the response could be to an impactor hitting anywhere in the western world, given our current level of paranoia...

Er, Cheers,

Nathan.