Two people that really scare me.

[Boblobla]

Bush and Brown issue Iran warning

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/eu...dom/index.html

Reads the same as almost all of the other warnings. Long story short, more of the same sanctions. All it will do is solidfy the people of Iran against the west and Europe and ensure that people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be in power for years to come. This in turn with ensure that there will be a country around to provide weapons, shelter and funding for global terrorism.




Absolutely Bat S*** Insane. If North Korea ever gets it's hands on nukes we should all be very afraid.

[Prototype]

"And I raaaaan... I ran so far away...". If there's any justice in the world, someone will post the video for this from SNL, and something from Team America. I can't being at work, no access to Youtube...

[octothorp]

I can understand the fears about Kim Jong-il, but don't lose any sleep over Ahmadinejad. The guy's little more than a figurehead. Khamenei is still in power, controlling the constitution and the larger and better-equipped of Iran's two armies. Of course, Khamenei is a hard-line conservative and it's unlikely he's going to allow much reform in Iran, and possibly even facilitate a further return to the hardline social values espoused by the 1979 revolution. But his foreign policy is very clear on the fact that Iran's foreign policy needs to be about self-preservation only, not military aggression. Ahmadinejad will probably continue to direct funding through to pro-Palestinian terrorist groups, and I believe that he does personally want to develop nuclear weapons, but these are both things that Khamenei is strongly against and has the final say on. Next year, Ahmadinejad will go up for reelection. Current public opinion harshly condemns his economic policies, and unless something changes soon, I wouldn't expect to see him still in power next August.

[Gozer]

What about this Afghan-Pakistan talk?

That has me a little worried too.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by Gozer

What about this Afghan-Pakistan talk?

That has me a little worried too.

Pakistan seems pretty pissed that the US blew up some of their soldiers, with good reason.

[LChoy]

Agree with Octothorp. Iran knows how to play the media but they know there is a line they won't cross hence they risk an attack by the US or Israel. If anything, I bet Israel will attack Iran first before the US does.

The other situation I think could spark something is in the Balkans (seems like they are always the powder keg). New Kosovo constitution kicks in and the Russians aren't happy about it. Also, Russia has been feeling jilted for awhile now by its former satellite states attempting to join NATO, a real blow to National pride. Also, issues with the Missile Defence shield and growing Petrochemical competition in places like Africa. Interesting times we live in

[FlamesAddiction]

What scares me more than any of those people is the idea that energy prices are expected to soar to such a level that food will become too expensive to ship and shortages are going to occur globally. Iran knows this and that anymore destablization in the Mid East will also effectively destablize the West and the world as a hole. Circumstances have given them a very unbalanced amount of power.

Since we're talking about scary crap, and how we're all going to Hell in a hand-basket..., a friend of mine told me that the Japanese religious cult "Aum Shinrikyo" has already tested a nuclear device in the Austailian desert, and that the governments are trying to keep it quiet. I realize that is deep into paranoid conspiracy theorist territory, but it's a scary thought. If it turned out to be true, it changes everything.

[LChoy]

Interesting, but didn't the Japanese already hanged their spirtitual leader for the Sarin gas attack? He was their god like leader, so if he's dead, it sort of puts a contradiction into their religious beliefs. In any case, I'm probably sketical since it requires enormous expertise to build a proper nuclear device. However, the Russians are still unsure if they had accounted for all of theirs, and hope the ones that are missing are just misplaced, and not in unknown hands

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by lchoy

Interesting, but didn't the Japanese already hanged their spirtitual leader for the Sarin gas attack? He was their god like leader, so if he's dead, it sort of puts a contradiction into their religious beliefs. In any case, I'm probably sketical since it requires enormous expertise to build a proper nuclear device. However, the Russians are still unsure if they had accounted for all of theirs, and hope the ones that are missing are just misplaced, and not in unknown hands

I don't know, it was years ago now, so maybe the group is no longer active. At the time, they were said to have recruited ex-Soviet nuclear scientists though. Even if they are defunct now, it's scary to think that a lot of these people could be for "hire".

[Knut]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo your post had me interested in reading about this group.

All the leaders are on death row it seems, however they did have quite the stockpile of Chemical and biological weapons.

[GoinAllTheWay]

What scares me is that Korean guys hair. What the hell does he have goin on up there? Is that a rug?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I can understand the fears about Kim Jong-il, but don't lose any sleep over Ahmadinejad. The guy's little more than a figurehead. Khamenei is still in power, controlling the constitution and the larger and better-equipped of Iran's two armies. Of course, Khamenei is a hard-line conservative and it's unlikely he's going to allow much reform in Iran, and possibly even facilitate a further return to the hardline social values espoused by the 1979 revolution. But his foreign policy is very clear on the fact that Iran's foreign policy needs to be about self-preservation only, not military aggression. Ahmadinejad will probably continue to direct funding through to pro-Palestinian terrorist groups, and I believe that he does personally want to develop nuclear weapons, but these are both things that Khamenei is strongly against and has the final say on. Next year, Ahmadinejad will go up for reelection. Current public opinion harshly condemns his economic policies, and unless something changes soon, I wouldn't expect to see him still in power next August.

I'm the opposite, I fear Iran alot more. North Korea is so uneducated they wouldn't even know what to do with a Nuke if they had one. They tested a "Nuke" last year and it barely got off the ground.

[Azure]

I don't really fear either of them. Israel is going to take care of Iran if they ever get close to a nuclear bomb, and North Korea is not suicidal.

Even if one of them supplies a nuclear bomb to a terrorist group, it'll be traced back to the country it originated from, and that country will certainly be reduced to radioactive rubble.

All the more reason for the US to drill for their own oil and wean themselves off of ME oil.

[Ozy_Flame]

Here's to put things in perspective:

If you think all this volleying of nuclear talk scares you now, maybe you should have been around from 1945-1970, before 'detente' began between the US and the USSR.

Every major city in North America had a nuclear missile locked on it, including Calgary.

You'll know there's a problem when we have to go back to building nuke bunkers and testing our nuclear war sirens and participating in duck-down drills.

[FireFly]

I'm more concerned about China and it's potential than I am the others... Which is part of the reason the US is pushing, and Japan is looking at, getting nukes themselves.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Here's to put things in perspective:

If you think all this volleying of nuclear talk scares you now, maybe you should have been around from 1945-1970, before 'detente' began between the US and the USSR.

Every major city in North America had a nuclear missile locked on it, including Calgary.

You'll know there's a problem when we have to go back to building nuke bunkers and testing our nuclear war sirens and participating in duck-down drills.

Every city had a nuke targeted on it until the mid 90's. In fact most cities had more then one, I remember reading a book on nuclear exchange strategies, and Calgary had about 10 targeted on it. Washington had well over 100, and that doesn't include sub launched depressed launches where there would be about 3 minutes worth of warning.

There's pretty much no bunker deep enough to survive a nuclear exchange. Mount Cheyenne where Nato is buried in a mountain had a whole regiment of ICBM's with huge warheads and rock penetrating technology with the intent of turning that mountain into a lake.

[Azure]

Heh, be pretty cool if we could get a real-life simulation of what would happen in a full-blown nuclear war.

[LChoy]

Although it be the end of humanity, watching WWIII unfold from the moon would be kind of cool....

[Thor]

My friend who recently lived in Korea for 5 years, said that there is very little fear in south korea over the north.

They all see it for what it is, and in the last number of years positive things have happened to bring the 2 countries closer together and letting people cross the border for reunions, etc..

So North Korea isn't as scary as we in the west make it out to be, I'm sure the same can be said of Iran since we know IF they got nuclear capability Israel would be pre-emptive to stop that.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Azure

Heh, be pretty cool if we could get a real-life simulation of what would happen in a full-blown nuclear war.

Play Superpowers II.