<For anyone who is interested in having a neutral discussion on the dynamics of the situation (i.e. without the need to put moral judgements on killing), >
Carl, I don't see how moral judgements can be avoided when people are being killed by other people.
Mqurice
PS: Why GeorgeW's antimissile space system is a waste of money. Just as Osama's crew needed only a bit of money and some box-cutters to remove the WTC and a lot more besides, Saddam doesn't need missiles to nuke Chicago.
<Saddam might have arranged for some funds transfer to some naughty jihadist people in Pakistan, who might have misappropriated a Pakistani, or even Russian, nuke or three. Those might have been packed inside yet another delivery, or three, of Afghan-produced opium poppy powder, in a container for delivery to the USA. Some underpaid customs officers might have been paid to turn a blind eye and allow these through to the enormous USA drug markets.
Exports to the USA are up so there are no doubt lots of containers with spare space for the opium powder Trojan Horse deliveries. lists.isb.sdnpk.org.
Once the customs officer has been fooled into allowing a nuke buried in some opium through, by the simple expedient of bribery in exchange for forgetting to check a container, Saddam's USA operatives can rent some warehouse space in some major USA cities where said containers can be stored until needed. The customs officer wouldn't let a nuke in, but I'm sure some of them will accept bribes for opium imports.
Saddam has had the USA on his case for a decade, so he's had a lot of time to do things.
Now, suppose the USA army is rolling up the turnpike to Baghdad just like a decade ago and they seem to be heading for Saddam's palaces. He might be inclined to explain to the USA that he has arranged for a nuke to be discreetly concealed in one of a large number of USA cities of over 1 million population and that if said USA soldiers come a metre closer, he is going to activate one of the bombs with a Globalstar phone which he keeps handy.
The CIA, being pretty quick-witted will immediately shut down Globalstar. But Saddam, enjoying such games, will actually not have a Globalstar phone other than to shout "BANG" to give a fright to the NSA listening team. He will really use a normal sort of call to a prepaid cdma2000 phone set up in the container to explode the trigger. He will also have a backup 'dead man's switch' trigger in case he is suddenly rendered inoperative.
If his bluff is called, he will demonstrate that it wasn't in fact a bluff by blowing up the said city. He will explain that he has got more where that came from and the next one will be activated if the USA soldiers approach another kilometre, or more USA Tomahawks make loud noises near his palaces.
Or, maybe Osama or the Pakistani Moslem jihadists have already done the job. Heck, even China would be inclined to ensure a few nukes are in strategic places just in case push comes to shove over Taiwan. GeorgeW's space defence system seems silly when containers are flooding in.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and India are wondering whether they should do pre-emptive strikes in the great tradition of dawn-raid military surprises to get the upper hand on an enemy.
So, a week from now, we could have had quite a lot of very large bangs across the Moslem world, in the USA and into India and maybe China and Taiwan. That wouldn't be ideal for cdma2000 sales in several countries. Nor would it be good for stockmarkets. Gold of the Aztec type could do okay though.
But if Iraq, 4 USA cities, Pakistan, chunks of India and China, Taipei and a few New Zealand farms are leveled, that's no big deal for the other 5 or 6 billion of us.> |
