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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (220596)	2/23/2007 9:04:44 PM
From: Noel de Leon	Respond to of 281500

"He points them to a book by Iraq's top nuclear physicist about the nuclear centrifuge buried in his garden. A centrifuge is an extremely expensive piece of equipment, necessary for the production of weapons-grade uranium." No, This should read; There were parts of a nuclear centrifuge buried in his garden. A centrifuge is an extremely expensive piece of equipment, necessary for the production of nuclear fuel and, if a sufficient number of centrifuges are set up in tandem (around 3000), weapons-grade uranium. Considering the size of the herd that believed and, to some extent still believes that Saddam had WMDs, then the Orwellian condition would indicate that it is unwise to follow that particular herd.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (220596)	2/23/2007 9:21:37 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Tony Blair has an article in Feb FA, and it's free, so I'm reading that first. It's about the ideological struggle that must take place between the modern world and the retrograde and barbaric forces that are running Islamism. Tony Blair has really had to lead in this respect, as Bush's rhetoric has been pretty hopeless in describing the true nature of the battle. Good quote: The terrorists base their ideology on religious extremism -- and not just any religious extremism, but a specifically Muslim version. The terrorists do not want Muslim countries to modernize. They hope that the arc of extremism that now stretches across the region will sweep away the fledgling but faltering steps modern Islam wants to take into the future. They want the Muslim world to retreat into governance by a semifeudal religious oligarchy. Yet despite all of this, which I consider fairly obvious, many in Western countries listen to the propaganda of the extremists and accept it. (And to give credit where it is due, the extremists play our own media with a shrewdness that would be the envy of many a political party.) They look at the bloodshed in Iraq and say it is a reason for leaving. Every act of carnage somehow serves to indicate our responsibility for the disorder rather than the wickedness of those who caused it. Many believe that what was done in Iraq in 2003 was so wrong that they are reluctant to accept what is plainly right now. Some people believe that terrorist attacks are caused entirely by the West's suppression of Muslims. Some people seriously believe that if we only got out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the attacks would stop. And, in some ways most perniciously, many look at Israel and think we pay too great a price for supporting it and sympathize with those who condemn it. If we recognized this struggle for what it truly is, we would at least be on the first steps of the path to winning it. But a vast part of Western opinion is not remotely near this point yet. foreignaffairs.org Tony Blair needs to say this and keep saying this. A vast part of Western opinion is pulling the blankets over their heads and repeating loudly, "Everybody's civilized! There are no enemies, except for our own governments, and if somebody wants to kill us, we must have deserved it! If somebody wants to blow up women and children in the marketplace, that must be our fault too!"