[TheForge] Patriotic rant....

Fri Jun 21 09:10:01 2002

Bob Rackers wrote:
> 
> I can think of worse things to say about a guy than comparing him to Ronald
> Reagan.
> Were it not for Reagan, the Berlin Wall would still be standing.\

	That's a speculation whose truth value I am not confident of.
	The wall would have come down in any event.  We cannot credit
	the USA with the demise of Soviet style "communism".  Their
	system was SO utterly bankrupt in its very foundation of design
	that it was only a matter of time before they collapsed.  One
	can feed a black hole only so long before they run out of stuff
	with which to feed it.  Actually it appears to be something of
	a small miracle that their system lasted as long as it did.
	Testimony to the power of sheer human will, I suppose.
> 
> That he states using the weapons is not out of the question is exactly what
> makes them a deterrent.
> (And he was talking about tactical nukes.)

	Bob, he was talking of first strikes.  This has not been
	considered an option since the 40s or early 50s when it
	became abundantly clear that almost any exchange of such
	devices between, say, us and the Russians would be calamitous
	to the entire planet.

	Can anyone confidently predict the response of another nuclear
	power if we were to unilaterally lay an egg on, say, Iraq?  And
	what about the nations adjacent to Iraq?  Turkey would take a
	major shit at such an act, as would Iran and all the other 
	neighboring nations.  You would see "terrorism" go through the
	roof against the USA, I would bet.  If my back were in a corner
	and I felt I had nothing to lose, I'd try to kill as many of
	my enemies as I could.  The Bush mentality is suicidal.  And
	that notwithstanding, how do we justify killing hundreds of
	thousands, if not millions of innocent civillians whose only
	goal in life is to get through another day?  If Georgie Boy
	want to kill himself, let him.  I'd even supply the weapon,
	but don't let him take the rest of us to hell in his
	masturbatory fantasy of war and glory for Daddy Dearest.

	Honestly Bob, you and I agree on many, many issues and we have
	had some great exchanges, but I must say that I think your
	position on this issue is not so well thought out.  There is
	nothing clean and surgical about a hydrogen bomb detonation.
	For those that back Israel, what about prevailing winds blowing
	the fallout all over the "holy land"?  It's not very far away.
	Seriously, try to think, in visualize in your idetic memories
	what the actual, hard reality of such acts might be like.  It
	is pretty nasty.
> 
> Bob
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Demon Buddha
> Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 1:20 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Patriotic rant....
> 
> <snip>
>         The fact that he would publicly state that he would not rule
>         out first strike use of such weapons in prima fascia evidence
>         that he is clinically insane.  Such talk is nuts on its face,
>         but given that the responses of other nuclear powers to such
>         talk cannot be predicted with sufficient reliability, his
>         comments take on a new character of unmitigated psychosis.
>         He reminds me a bit of Ronald Reagan, who by his words and
>         actions appeared to think he was in another "kill all the
>         Japs" WWII movie, except that Reagan had the apparent good sense
>         not to run off at the mouth about first strikes against the
>         enemies of the US with hydrogen devices.  I'm sorry, but
>         Bush is kookoo.  What would happen if Russia just decided it
>         has had enough and launched a strike in response to our
>         fearless leader's rhetoric.  Sure, it's not very likely, but
>         it's not impossible either.  This is the sort of thing one
>         doesn't mess with a whole lot if the goal is to not wind up
>         living in a global radioactive wasteland.  OK, we'd wipe Russia
>         out, but to what end?  Fallout respects no boundaries.
> 
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--
	-Andy V.

	I'm not a person who is easily moved, and in truth am highly
	indifferent to much that people find so touching.  However,
	one of the few spectacles that has succeeded in piercing me 
	deeply has been the one perceived whilst standing amid the 
	seemingly endless ocean of graves at Arlington, being unable
	to help but to attempt to contemplate each and every single 
	individual life that came to rest here and by what means they 
	may have done so.