“And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”  Zechariah 14:12  -  the ancient Israeli prophet Zechariah, in the Tenakh, ca 500 BC

The ancients never cease to amaze.  Zechariah’s strange prophecy made no scientific sense at all for 2,500 years after he uttered it.  Before the 1970s, the only way to conceive of this scenario occurring was by the direct supernatural intervention of Zechariah’s God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In the last 20 years, however, humans have figured out a technical way to achieve similar results.

Zechariah’s foreboding apocalyptic prose, quite remarkably, is an accurate description of the effects of a neutron bomb.  A neutron is simply a component of every atomic nucleus (except plain hydrogen).  As we all learned in physics class, an atom consists of a nucleus, made of positively charged protons clinging to neutrons with a neutral (no) electrical charge.  A negatively charged electron “cloud” surrounds the nucleus.  In general, every proton must have a companion neutron and an offsetting electron to form a stable element.  Neutrons are critical building blocks of every material thing in our universe.

When neutrons are where they are supposed to be, clinging to protons in atomic nuclei, they are vital for the existence of matter.  When they are freed, however, they make an extremely lethal form of radiation.  The neutron bomb exploits this deadly characteristic of free neutrons.  A neutron bomb is a third generation nuclear weapon.  In a first generation nuclear fission bomb, heavy atomic nuclei are split apart, and the power released from these large atoms is tremendous.  In its much more powerful second generation descendant, the fusion bomb, or thermonuclear bomb, light hydrogen isotopes are fused together to form heavier atoms, releasing unfathomable amounts of energy.  Fusion bombs make fission bombs look like firecrackers.

In one of these deadly thermonuclear bombs, the hydrogen isotopes of tritium and deuterium are fused together to form heavier elements, releasing about half the initial energy of the device.  The fusion core of the bomb is wrapped in a blanket of very heavy uranium 238 atoms.  The U-238 isotopes are split by the searing energy released from the fusion core, initiating a secondary fission explosion that can be more powerful than all the munitions ever expended in the history of humanity.  Extremely devastating and lethal, these hydrogen bombs are very messy, vaporizing or burning everything, and leaving the very earth itself contaminated with radiation that can last for millennia.  God forbid we ever decide to pull the red doomsday trigger and use these hell-spawned beasts on fellow humans.

The neutron bomb is another generation beyond a thermonuclear device.  It has the same core of a fusion bomb, but the blanket of heavy U-238 isotopes is removed, so only the energy released from the fusion core comprises the total explosive yield.  This energy is in the form of a massive flux of neutrons, combined with some gamma radiation.  Neutrons are highly lethal to humans and animals, and the N-bomb instantly kills everything in its radius of lethality.  Any living creatures that receive non-lethal doses of the neutrons will be dead within a day or two from radiation sickness.  Neutron radiation literally vaporizes the soft flesh of humans at close range, and Zechariah’s remarkable prophecy, regardless of what he was really prophesying, is an extraordinary description of the effects of a neutron bomb on human beings. 

Neutron bombs are also much cleaner than conventional nukes.  A neutron blast only kills living things, leaving all buildings and weapons intact.  It is the ultimate weapon to use against massed troops and armor, as all the enemies die instantly, no structures or vehicles are damaged, and, most importantly, no radioactive fallout is left behind.  Unlike fission or fusion nukes, neutron bombsites are safe to walk into immediately after the explosion.  Neutron technology has been developed to such a level that these devices can be produced in as small a package as the size of a common baseball!  They can be used in field artillery and small rockets, and even soldiers dug in behind several feet of earth are not safe from a neutron blast.  Until the Clinton/Gore Administration, only two nations wielded this fearful weapon, the United States and Israel.  Thanks to the DNC/Chinagate scandal, however, China is now known to possess neutron devices, and several other countries are rumored to be actively pursuing this technology.  Many global intelligence analysts believe that small neutron bombs may unfortunately become the weapon of choice for the discerning terrorist in the 21^st century.  It IS an ironic and sad commentary on humanity that the most intelligent humans (nuclear physicists) build weapons that the most power-hungry and unaccountable humans (politicians) use to kill the most courageous humans (patriotic soldiers).  We truly live in a crazy world.