Glad you posted the India and Pakistan conflict clipping

  It seems to be taken as a given that diplomacy had prevailed and the world's first full nuclear exchange had been avoided. My impression is that it's only been postponed. As long as industrialized countries have leverage and perks to offer developing nuclear nations then such dangers might remain within manageable levels. But I truly don't believe that that is always going to be the case. 

I've also been wondering  what happens to all the old missile systems... whenever a country starts to modernize and upgrade and they don't want to just take the financial loss.... such weapons don't get easily dismantled. Although I'm sure the IAEA closely monitors this sort of thing.

But ....what's to say they don't turn up once in  a while on the underground EBay?

by chariotdrvr14 (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 136 comments) on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 4:06:21 PM
 

Iran is a threat to whom or what?

How many countries has Iran invaded? How many nukes does it have? How much land has it stolen from its neighbors?

And BTW, when it comes to slingshots, guns, and especially, nukes, there are only two acceptable states of affairs: either everyone has nukes, or nobody has nukes. Anything in-between is morally indefensible.

by jpsmith123 (3 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 286 comments) on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 6:54:15 PM
 

CleaningUP U.S.

The people reading this know we're in trouble, maybe we're divided about what to do about it, but those details can be settled later. We know we have a problem and the solution to problems always involves change. We need change and we can't change republicans, so we must change ourselves to effect future change.

In addition to Republicans stirring up trouble ALL over the world, we have the Leaders of the Democratic party telling U.S. that Impeachment is off the Table. That's how our political system worked in the past, and that's one of things we have to change, right now. If the legislators supposed to be representing U.S. are instead going against U.S., we need to do some serious HouseCleaning. Which means we must do some serious thinking about voting for people who represent our BEST interests.

When you have a fire breathing dragon torching everything with each huff and puff, you gotta put that dragon out. Following George W. Bush and the Republican party is like sweeping up after a parade of elephants with perpetual diarrhea. They never stop shittin' on U.S.

.

by rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments) on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 9:31:54 AM
 

This is no time for sleepwalking. THOSE SABRES ARE NOT RUSTY

The forces which shaped atomic science were not all creative. Today's atomic scientists can be likened to Prometheus' half witted brother, Epimetheus, without foresight and mere practitioners. That the present set of Epimethean practitioners have not succeeded in destroying the planet by letting loose a radioactive plague against which we are defenseless is more the result of good fortune than good management.

Today the greatest challenges are not to be found in any new atomic science discoveries. We already know too much about atomic science for our own good. We no longer can bask in glory for having "conquered Nature" because we have no idea of what to do with this conquest nor how to prevent it from falling into the control of the half-witted practitioners.

The original atomic scientists might be likened to the Greek myth of Prometheus, a man of foresight and the bringer of fire, for indeed they were Promethean. Only we have become more powerful than than Prometheus, from now on we are the masters of our own fate.

The greatest challenge will be to prevent "the half-witted Epimetheans" from using the powers bestowed by the Prometheans and bring ruin to all of Nature of which we are only a small part.

We are not bound by fate in this matter. We are the deciders!

by Bucky the Commoner (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 48 comments) on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 12:08:16 PM
 

Author Replies

I agree that it's been only incredible luck that a mistake or accident hasn't caused a nuclear war- from the weather satellite launched during Yeltsin's time that they thought was an attack, to Nav Sec. Lemans order to ram the towing cable and sink a burning Soviet sub in the Atlantic, which was done.

 Re: India-Pakistan, it seems that they've slightly cooled their antipathy and rhetoric, but that could change at  any time with events or leadership changes-  and the paranoia for a first strike remains.

 Though it isn't popular with anyone, I believe we should bomb the Iranian program to dust- that country should never have nuclear weapons- it is a real urgent security matter, but Bush's catastrophic criminal Iraq invasion precluded any real defense and has rendered it politically impossible. But this is my plea for peace, which comes from a deeper place on the superpower standoff, which in my several long investigations/papers on te subject, I was convinced would kill us all.

 Bush's criminal acts in Iraq will still be killing Americans in 30 years from the hundreds of thousands of terrorists he's created. He should be pilloried and tried, but Dems reluctance to impeach the puke is understandable- it would take over a year (when he leaves office anyway), Repubs would almost certainly vote it down, it would prevent all other business, and Dems have hot-stove bad memories from the Clinton witchhunt. That doesn't mean he won't be pursued or sued after he leaves office. Or some shattered Iraq veteran could try some payback.

by Michael Hammerschlag (17 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 6 comments) on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at 6:28:39 PM