Wonder if they also have a religious obligation to build nuclear powered aircraft carriers?
NPR just rebroadcast something they recorded last year aboard the USS Stennis - an interview with various of the 5000 people who work on it. One woman, for example, works 12 hours a day just refilling vending machines. Snickers are the most popular snacks, some fruit chew (Boomers? anyway never heard of it) the least.
Until hearing it, it never really crossed my mind to wonder what it takes to keep 5000 people taken care of for six months at sea. Naturally, there are radar units, weather units, intelligence units, and all the other things you'd think of, but all food, fresh water, etc., must be provided from elsewhere.
And on an aircraft carrier, you rarely get to go up on the deck, unless it's part of your job. After all, that's where the planes take off and land.
Having nuclear weapons requires more than religion. You need lots of engineers, factories, and a lot of other technology and discipline that are inconsistent with the backwardness that currently plagues much of the Middle East. Missiles. Aircraft. Mechanics. Repairmen. Air conditioned clean rooms for supercomputers.
Unless, of course, they mean that they will just buy one that somebody else made.
Sort of like going to flight school but not learning how to take off or land.
I am firmly convinced that if they acquire the technology and education to build their own, it will require them to change for the better, so my feelings are mixed. |
