rhubroma said:The struggle has been reduced to a Muslim vs. non-Muslim dialectic. The problem from the getty-up with nuclear weapons and realpolitk is that it has always been based on the later, nothing objective that is.
And then what? Everybody that has their bombs gets to keep them? But nobody else has the "right" to have them? In an international order that lasts forever.
No. The NPT always had the (vague) promise of disarmament. Yes, it did fail in that regard, but this is precisely why it needs to be renegotiated. But first it needs to acknowledge all actual nuclear powers. And of course, it needs a better mechanism to promote total disarmament.
And I agree with ramjambunath, North Korea is a problem.
blutto said:...ok this may be from left field, but it may, if true, have some bearing on the drone downing...
...in a discussion about drones on another forum there was a point made by one poster which went as follows....drones or rather warfare which utilizes drones is a particularly hideous enterprise because it can only be used against a very technologically inferior opponent... apparently drones will literally glow in the dark when hit by even the simplest of radars...so their use is very limited ...they are a high tech version of Italian aircraft strafing Ethiopian horsemen during the 30's....
...I bring this up because this whole Iranian thing makes no sense...attack Iran which claims not to be on the path to nuclear weapons and the price of energy spikes and the world economy goes up in smoke...but that is simply not a winning move !....or is it quite possible that it is the Iranian oil bourse that is the problem, after all, Iraq and Libya both were attacked after they challenged the world financial hegemony....
...so it may not actually be Muslim vs non-Muslim...but a financially allied group of countries battling against outliers, who can, if organized, become a major problem as oil and other raw materials become a bigger issue....and in that regard the Libyian bank initiative for Africa could have been seen as a serious attack on the existing order of things....
Cheers
blutto
This drone had stealth technology. Apparently it hardly shows up on the radar. Clearly the rhetoric against Iran has stepped up considerably. First the ludicrous 'plot' to kill the Saudi ambassador using Mexican assassins. Now the drone incident. Why now? I don't know. Maybe the Iranians are closer to finish 'the bomb' then we are let to believe. Maybe it's to disrupt Iranian oil exports to China for whatever reason. Maybe it has to do with the Iranian oil bourse. Maybe it has something to do with Israeli or Saudi
VeloCity said:Good summary of where we stand re: climate change. It's not encouraging.
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-12-05-the-brutal-logic-of-climate-change
By some estimates, we're currently on track for 6 degrees C. If that's true, as the author says, it's game over.
Some twenty years ago, when the western world managed to get smog under control by greatly reducing SO2, NOx and other harmful emissions, the CO2 problem appeared on the radar. I was arguing at the time that contrary to the smog problem, the CO2 would not be solved. Unlike the other gases, CO2 cannot be avoided when burning fossil fuels. And sequestering it (or whatever people have suggested) is simply too expensive and would require quite a bit of energy itself i.e. consume more precious fuel. There's no hope stopping global warming; not that there ever was a chance. The only 'solution' will be to learn to adapt somehow.