So What If Mecca is the City to Get Nuked?

While I'm not speaking in reference to any particular article or blog post, I think there is a common thread of wondering what we'd do if we were nuked. What if we know who did it? What if we think we know? What if we don't know who did it?

I personally think we must respond with nukes to maintain deterrence. I wouldn't slaughter civilians in a revenge attack but I would use nukes in response. Would any state with nukes be deterred in the future if we won't respond with nukes? That's a rhetorical question, by the way, since deterrence requires believing the other side will respond in kind.

But what if Mecca is nuked? What if we wake up one morning to find CNN reporting that Mecca has been slagged and that for the average Moslem, getting the right compass bearing to pray is rather pointless. What do we do if that happens?

Moslems will be itching for revenge, I think it is safe to assume given past violent reactions to cartoons and what-not. Would Pakistan use its "Islamic bomb" to retaliate?

And who could have done it? We worry that loose Russian nukes could fall into the hands of jihadis, but what if irate Christians upset over Beslan got it? Or angry Hindus? Or angry Jews? Or Catholics worried the Pope is at risk for pointing out the violent tendencies of Moslems these days?

Or maybe some grad students make their own bomb right here in America or abroad in some Third World hell hole and ship it to Saudi Arabia?

Does anybody think the Islamic world will pause to consider who did it before lashing out?

And if the Moslem world isn't as likely to be measured as we might be, what do we do anticipating a highly violent response to something we did not do?

Will we be forced to strike hard after Mecca is destroyed just to preempt a lethal Islamic response?

I'm reasonably sure what we need to to do if we are nuked. I have no idea what we should do if they are nuked.