Iranian Anti-American Cartoons

[Nickdfresh]

The problem with having nuckies, from my lowly perspective, is that a lot of these nations see them as a sort of Holy Grail, a culmination of national aspirations to sort of "be some body." Nukes are also thought of as a relatively cheap way of deterring a much more powerful aggressor.

The problem is that nukes are to, varying degrees, expensive not only to build. Nations that acquire them also find out that they are enormously expensive and a complex headache to maintain. The "Command and Control" issue is one that is plaguing both Pakistan and India. The networks of communications, verifications, and readiness are extremely comprehensive and overwhelming. They incur a lot of resources for a nations military budget. Then of course, there's the danger that terrorists, or even factions in civil wars or military coups, could get their hands on the nukes and then we'd be a slave to rogues using these weapons for blackmail, or worse....

I agree with the "Thank God for the Bomb" notion to an extent, but there is no way it is practical.

I think a better, admittedly Utopian and unrealistic, solution to war is to ban armies all together, and turn the world's militaries into something modeled on Costa Rica's Civil Guard. But it's not likely, and many would argue that states cannot exist without an active military. I don't know, but Costa Rica is a pretty nice place to visit I hear...

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Blackflag
Don't pretend to be clueless.

He's not pretending.....

[Blackflag]

Just call me straight man...

[jgdrag]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
The problem with having nuckies, from my lowly perspective, is that a lot of these nations see them as a sort of Holy Grail, a culmination of national aspirations to sort of "be some body." Nukes are also thought of as a relatively cheap way of deterring a much more powerful aggressor.

The problem is that nukes are to, varying degrees, expensive not only to build. Nations that acquire them also find out that they are enormously expensive and a complex headache to maintain. The "Command and Control" issue is one that is plaguing both Pakistan and India. The networks of communications, verifications, and readiness are extremely comprehensive and overwhelming. They incur a lot of resources for a nations military budget. Then of course, there's the danger that terrorists, or even factions in civil wars or military coups, could get their hands on the nukes and then we'd be a slave to rogues using these weapons for blackmail, or worse....

I agree with the "Thank God for the Bomb" notion to an extent, but there is no way it is practical.

I think a better, admittedly Utopian and unrealistic, solution to war is to ban armies all together, and turn the world's militaries into something modeled on Costa Rica's Civil Guard. But it's not likely, and many would argue that states cannot exist without an active military. I don't know, but Costa Rica is a pretty nice place to visit I hear...

Agree, but come on, we are talking about people here

[Warham]

Originally posted by Blackflag
Who's to say what limits there are to a "preemptive" strike? If they enriching underground, and the only way to reach it is with a nuclear weapon...doesn't a preemptive policy say you should use it? Don't pretend to be clueless.

You don't have to use nukes to accomplish that mission.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by WAR
You don't have to use nukes to accomplish that mission.

The truth is that we have no fucking clue where a lot of the Iranian "research" is performed. And that there is some evidence that the Iranian nukie prowess is exaggerated (golly, how could that be?)...

And, the program is so dispersed that it would be almost impossible to wipe it out, even using "bunker-busting nukes"...

[Blackflag]

Originally posted by WAR
You don't have to use nukes to accomplish that mission.

And you didn't have to send 250k troops to Iraq to take out Saddam...but who's to say what "preemptive" means? You?

[Nitro Express]

For most of our history, we walked and rode horses. Technology actually changed little until the late 19th Century. In the 20th Century we went from barely even being able to keep a big motorized kite flying off the ground to putting a man on the moon. The biggest advances since 1969 seem to have been in the computer and biotech industry.

Mid century was the time of the nukes. Germany did most of the theoretical footwork but it was the US who put it all into a working bomb. Russia soon followed in a few short years as did other countries.

We made the first nuclear bomb but the technology that led up to it was international. It was only a matter of time before someone else made one.

Then we began making them smaller and making the delivery system more efficient.

It's been a half century and as we lose our technological and economical lead in the world, someone else is going to take over as the big bad superpower.

Unless we do bomb ourselves back to the stoneage, these nuclear weapons will continue to grow globally. If your nieghbors have then, well hell, you need them to keep the nighbors from blackmailing you. Then the game of trying to get the first strike begins. This is called missle deffense.

The cold war never ended. It's just including more players. God help us!

[Nitro Express]

I see the world as the family of Abraham (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) having a big family fued and scaring the shit out of the other half of the world's population.

There's two world destroying motivators in the Middle East. A) Religion and B) Oil.

The leaders of Iran believe the can bring the Mahdi back by starting major nuclear shit. They start a huge unwinnable war and their Messiah comes back to issue in paradisacle living.

The Christians have a hard on for Daniel and Revelations. Israel is a state and the sabers are rattling. The early rapture crowd are extreamly cocky right now and stirring shit with AIPAC. The Rev. John Hagee is cumming all over hiself telling his followers Jesus is going to beam them up at anytime.

Not all Christians believe this but see themselves going through the tribulations of war, famine, pestalence, but Jesus will come in the middle of the final battle and usher in a 1,000 years of peace.

The Jews are still waiting for their Messiah and years of oppression have made them tough. They are tired of being fucked around with, and whoever tries to run their ass out of Israel again can have some nukes shoved up their ass.

The rest of the world are Hindus, Buddists, Taoists, Athiests, Agnostic, Communists ect. They just look at the other half and shake their heads. They see the Abrahamic people as a bunch of religiouse zelots out of control.

Some want to die and ruin the world to bring their Mahdi back. Some are looking forward to the bad news and nuclear war because that means Jesus is Comming. Some are tired of being fucked around and want to rebuild Herod's Temple so the Messiah will return.

Half of the world wants to destroy the earth so some magical figure can restore it better than before.

Then you have your Green People. The environmental crowd who believe it's up to us to save the planet.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
F...

Mid century was the time of the nukes. Germany did most of the theoretical footwork but it was the US who put it all into a working bomb. Russia soon followed in a few short years as did other countries.

...

At the risk of being a "Nancy-boy," I'd like to point out that the Nazi German bomb program was led by complete asshats that didn't know nuclear fission from their assholes...

Then the Norwegian (under the British) SAS destroyed whatever they had discovered with a commando attack...

[Warham]

Originally posted by Blackflag
And you didn't have to send 250k troops to Iraq to take out Saddam...but who's to say what "preemptive" means? You?

No, we could've just sent special forces guys in there to assassinate him, but that's against US policy.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by WAR
No, we could've just sent special forces guys in there to assassinate him, but that's against US policy.

In a posrt 9/11 world BushCO doesnt give a SHIT about policy...


You know damn good and well why Chimpy wanted to invade with shock and awe..

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
At the risk of being a "Nancy-boy," I'd like to point out that the Nazi German bomb program was led by complete asshats that didn't know nuclear fission from their assholes...

Then the Norwegian (under the British) SAS destroyed whatever they had discovered with a commando attack...

I wasn't reffering to the Nazi nuclear bomb project. Hitler saw it as a long shot and reffused to give it seriouse funding.

What I was talking about is nuclear physics came from Germany. They were way ahead of the rest of the world on it in an accademic way. It was the German born Einstein that convinced Roosevelt the US better get going on a nuclear weapons program before someone in Germany did.

If you look at the type of facilities that had to be built in Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos it's amazing the US even developed the bomb. The Manhattan Project was one expensive and huge undertaking.

[Nickdfresh]

Einstein really had little to do with the actual development of the bomb...

Originally posted by WAR
No, we could've just sent special forces guys in there to assassinate him, but that's against US policy.

No. He was a general in the Iraqi Army, making him a legitimate target...