[extropy-chat] nuclear non-proliferation as energy strategy ?

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 18 08:46:24 UTC 2006



--- Brian Lee <brian_a_lee at hotmail.com> wrote:

> This is why Iran is a bigger problem than Pakistan
> or Israel: Iran supports 
> terrorism and makes threats about annihilating other
> countries (specifically 
> US and Israel).

Well I have heard an unsubstantiated rumor that more
than a few Muslims believe that Zionists control the
US government. Whether this is true or not, when it
comes to the human psyche, perception might as well be
reality.

> Their president is a raving lunatic
> who denies the Holocaust 
> and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Is he really a lunatic? Or is he a shrewd politician
who has learned lessons from history like the value of
the bluff from Nikita Khrushchev ("We will bury you.")
and the value of appealing to religious fundamentalism
from none other than George W. Bush. However, unlike
Jesus' favorite president George Bush, Ahmadinejad has
a colleague that claimed to see a "glow of light"
around him as he addressed a stunned United Nations
with the words you mentioned. So if you imagine
yourself an average Arab, I think that Ahmadinejad
might be telling you EXACTLY what you would want to
hear. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/14/wiran14.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/14/ixworld.html

> If we
> could go back in time, 
> we should have stopped Pakistan and Israel from
> developing nuclear weapons 
> but we can't, so they have nukes.

Yes, the "going back in time" motif seems to run quite
prominently through reflections upon the history of
the nuclear genie. So if a time machine gets invented
so that we can go back in time as you suggest, perhaps
we should keep that technology out of the hands of the
brown people too.

> Additionally,
> Pakistan "playing ball" with 
> the US and cooperating goes a long way toward them
> not being a threat.

True, provided that the US does not do stupid things
like using predator drones to bomb the shit out of an
innocent Pakistani village in the hopes of hitting an
Al Quaeda leader that isn't there.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=86042

> The 911 hijackers being Saudi does not mean the
> Saudi government supports 
> terrorism. To suggest this link is misguided.

No, of course not. Just because Saudi Arabia is the
religious capital of Islam doesn't mean that they
would secretly support terrorist activity any more
than than the US government would support any of the
black ops that we disavow. Especially when they have
so little to gain from a world-wide Caliphate. 

So apparently in the unruly poker-game that is
international relations today, with fence-sitting
China as a wild card, Iran has seen our Iraqi quagmire
and raised us a full-scale Jihad. The stakes? On one
side, the right of nations that are technologically
capable of producing WMD to produce them and on the
other? Ring-side seats for a potential World War.
Unless one can afford a get away to a summer home in
the Bahamas. The fact that Iran is China's number one
oil-supplier really heightens my suspense.  

The question on my mind is whether Ahmadinejad has the
charisma to unite the Arab Sunnis and Shiites with the
Persian Shiites against the great "Satan of the West".
I doubt it but then again I also doubted Bush's
ability to unite Catholics and Protestants against
Kerry with simple-minded religious rhetoric.

Should we trust Iran with nukes? No more than we trust
Pakistan, Israel, or North Korea. After all, you can't
trust a 3000 year old civilization, that once ruled a
world-wide empire, with last century's weapons. But
that IS the point of nukes isn't it? You have to trust
the nations have them because there isn't any other
option? So perhaps there is some method to MADness
after all.

So riddle me this, libertarian-man: Does the right to
bear arms mean that if I am smart enough to invent the
Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator, I therefore
have the right to wield it?

Interestingly enough, this fear of nuclear
proliferation is a major stumbling block for the
development of next-generation fast-breeder nuclear
reactors that would generate electricity much more
efficiently than current reactors AND eliminate the
need of finding safe places to store nuclear waste for
a million years. But I suppose that it is the price of
fear that keeps fear-mongers afloat. It is programmed
into our genes after all to not trust any other tribe.
They might, after all, try to steal your women and
your bananas!
  


The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. . ."

- Albert Einstein, "What I Believe" (1930)

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