Speculation On the Doomed Satellite 229
scim writes "Intelligent speculation has led one knowledgeable observer to believe the satellite recently announced to have failed is a radar satellite named USA 193. According to an earlier story on the satellite: 'The experimental L-21 classified satellite, built for the National Reconnaissance Office at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, was launched successfully on Dec. 14 [2006] but has been out of touch since reaching its low-earth orbit.'" The ArmsControlWonk story leads off with what purports to be a photo from the ground of USA 193.
The Chinese Can Handle It (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My Backyard (Score:1, Interesting)
IMHO, a nuclear Iran is not a problem. They know that if they use it they will have committed instant suicide. The Iranian government might be different compared to our Western ideas, but they're not that stupid.
I believe that the real danger is not in countries with nukes, but in small isolated cells of extremists with smaller, portable weapons of mass destruction. A group at which you cannot easily strike back with pre-programmed ICBM target locations.
But oh.. if Iran has a nuke, you cannot invade them that easily when the hunt for oil ramps up even further. The fact that Iran is also accepting the Euro as payment for oil is already frustrating enough for the U.S.. Switching to the Euro was also pretty much the last idea that Saddam had..
Dear Iranians, please forgive me for the analogy, but I think Iran is a bit like a relatively small but very loud barking dog. It knows it is not a super power, it can give a very good bite (huge military), but it's mostly concerned by making sure that the other dogs which are looking at its food (oil) stay at a distance. Having a nuke is like being backed up by your owner who's carrying a shotgun.
Oh and contrary to the feeling that you might get from most large news channels, Iran is not some stupid country with desert-dwelling fanatics:
TEHERAN - Mega Capital of IRAN - photos of Tehran on Worldisround
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/98910/index.html [worldisround.com]
Warning: LARGE PAGE. My apologies to the server owner..
Yes, there is behaviour and there are rules in that country which we consider old fashioned, but this is mostly in the country side.
How many of you did know that there are more women than men going to university there!?!?
Will it burn up? (Score:5, Interesting)
Which brings me to something else: do these satellites have some sort of self destruct mechanism? What was to stop, say, the Soviets or Chinese from going up and physically stealing a very expensive satellite that presumably contains technology/information we don't want them getting their hands on?
Re:Which is it? (Score:1, Interesting)
Fixed that for you (Score:2, Interesting)
America isn't a legitimate state... exit polling suggests the last two elections were rigged. They have no right to exist, own property, have a military, etc. Because they are a bigoted evil colonial power.
America has repeatedly said it will take no options off the table. If you visit America, you will hear people on the radio talk about turning the middle east into a piece of glass, etc. And it's not actually to protect themselves against terrorism (though it wouldn't be okay if it were), they are continuing a hundred year old policy of establishing a military presence around oil resources. This places them in the same category as Rome or the British Empire.
Also, you're wrong about the civilian deaths. America has killed more foreign civilians than any other outside country in history, perhaps with the exception of Nazi Germany. They claim the numbers in Iraq are low this time, but statistics out of America are always lies. Even if they say what the Americans want them to, they will still lie about it. Notice how they don't officially "keep track" of civilian deaths. Hell if anyone knows the real figures.
If your state is not a legitimate member of the international community, it has no right to exist. We can't destroy every such nation for obvious reasons, but we can fuck with them however we feel we need to. Why? Why not?
Sincerely,
Wen Jiabao
Premier of the People's Republic of China
Re:My Backyard (Score:1, Interesting)
1. Full citizenship is afforded to everyone in israel, see the druzies or the native arabs in the north. As a matter fact druzies which are not jewish are one of the most revered non-jews in israel, they get many things from the government that normal jews can't.
2. The terror attacks against the UK you spoke of was because of 3 things. 1 native jews existed there when the UK took the land from Jordan and they were denied protection or even the right to self govern. 2 the native jews in that land fought for the british in italy under the idea that britain would allow them to become a nation (no size or place specified). 3 After WWII the british were openly arming the arabs in the area and disarming the jews, when the jews sought protection from the constant killing the arabs where to doing to the jews the british refused to lift a finger but when a jew defended himself and killed an arab he was either killed, imprisoned or force to leave the land.
3. The UN is a joke. Here are a few examples. 1 Hamas fires rockets into israel, now remember hamas is the officially elected government of the palastenines. If this happened with Mexico's political and military groups firing rockets into the US we would consider it an act of war, the UN does not think this applies there though. 2 Look at other situations the UN has stepped in and screwed things up, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Africa, etc. How many of them had UN resolutions passed for various reasons to only be ignored by even the BIG boys such as China, US, France and Russia?
Bottom line you have a twisted view of the situation and unless you have lived through some (which I have) of the situations mentioned I would recommend you don't open your mouth and look like a fool.
On another note what you would do about the situation in Israel? Kill all the jews? I think the late 1930s and 40s are calling you back to the father land to fight for the uber men.