It's WWIII, and U.S. is out of ideas

[voivod]

It's WWIII, and U.S. is out of ideas


Last week's headlines prove the point: North Korea fires missiles, Iran talks of nukes again, Iraq carnage continues, Israel invades Gaza, England observes one-year anniversary of subway bombing. And, oh, yes, the feds stop a plot to blow up tunnels under the Hudson River.

World War III has begun.

It's not perfectly clear when it started. Perhaps it was after the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. Perhaps it was the first bombing of the World Trade Center, in 1993.

What is clear is that this war has a long fuse and, while we are not in the full-scale combat phase that marked World Wars I and II, we seem to be heading there. The expanding hostilities mean it's time to give this conflict a name, one that focuses the mind and clarifies the big picture.

The war on terror, or the war of terror, has tentacles that reach much of the globe. It is a world war.

While it is often a war of loose or no affiliation, and sometimes just amateur copycats, the similar goals of destruction add up to a threat against modern society. Even the hapless wanna-bes busted in Miami ordered guns and military equipment from a man they thought was from Al Qaeda. Islamic fascists are the driving force, but anti-American hatred is a global membership card for any and all who have a grievance and a gun.

The feeling that the wheels are coming off the world has only one recent comparison, the time when America's head-butt with communism sprouted hot spots from Cuba to Vietnam. Yet ultimately the policy of mutual assured destruction worked because American and Soviet leaders didn't want their countries hit by nuclear bombs.

Such rational thinking is quaint next to the ravings of North Korean nut Kim Jong Il and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They both seem to be dying to die - and set the world on fire.

And don't forget Osama Bin Laden's declaration that it is the duty of every Muslim to acquire a "Muslim bomb." Is there any doubt he would use it if he had it?

I sound pessimistic because I am. Even worse than the problems is the fact that our political system is failing us. Democratic Party leaders want to pretend we can declare peace and everything will be fine, while President Bush is out of ideas. Witness Bush now counseling patience and diplomacy on North Korea. This from a man who scorned both for five years.

But what choice does he have now that the pillars of his post-9/11 foreign policy are crumbling? As Harvard Prof. Joseph Nye argues in Foreign Affairs magazine, Bush's strategy of "reducing Washington's reliance on permanent alliances and international institutions, expanding the traditional right of preemption into a new doctrine of preventive war and advocating coercive democratization as a solution to Middle Eastern terrorism" amounted to a bid for a "legacy of transformation."

The first two ideas have been repealed. The third brought Hamas into power and has so far failed to take root in Iraq or anywhere else.

I believed Iraq was the key, that if we prevailed there, momentum would shift in our favor. Now I'm not sure. We still must prevail there, but Iraq could mean nothing if Iran or Bin Laden get the bomb or North Korea uses one.

Meanwhile, I'm definitely not using any tunnels.

Originally published on July 9, 2006

SOURCE:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/goodwin/

[cyberfiddl]

The biggest threat to this mighty country is itself. And the far left seems ready to tear it down. What a shame it is for some people to be so ignorant AND arrogant at the same time. They won't be happy until Chinese tanks are rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I think we should build daisy cutters in numbers comparable to Big Macs. Those North Korean missiles should have been blistered while they were still on the launch pad. Thank you Bill Clinton for giving them everything they need, and more ($$$).
I am tired of this country being "stand-up guys". American companies should stop buying advertising in the NY Times. We should send about 500 W-88 tipped short range missiles to Japan. We should allow India to have their way with Pakistan. Mexico? There's your 51st state.
I think we should allow (force?) the UN to move to Paris. Or Tehran. Same difference.
We've ignored Africa long enough. If we leave it up to the UN to fix things, it will end up being one big al Qaeda training camp.
It is a shame that Muslim women and children are becoming suicide bombers. In my book, that makes them the enemy. God help me for the things racing through my mind...

[strungout]

The biggest threat to this mighty country is itself. And the far left seems ready to tear it down. What a shame it is for some people to be so ignorant AND arrogant at the same time. They won't be happy until Chinese tanks are rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I think we should build daisy cutters in numbers comparable to Big Macs. Those North Korean missiles should have been blistered while they were still on the launch pad. Thank you Bill Clinton for giving them everything they need, and more ($$$).
I am tired of this country being "stand-up guys". American companies should stop buying advertising in the NY Times. We should send about 500 W-88 tipped short range missiles to Japan. We should allow India to have their way with Pakistan. Mexico? There's your 51st state.
I think we should allow (force?) the UN to move to Paris. Or Tehran. Same difference.
We've ignored Africa long enough. If we leave it up to the UN to fix things, it will end up being one big al Qaeda training camp.
It is a shame that Muslim women and children are becoming suicide bombers. In my book, that makes them the enemy. God help me for the things racing through my mind...

Wow...just....wow.


You missed the Nazi parade by a good 65 years. Are all the libraries in Louisville filled with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter's xenophobic nationalist hate speeches or were you just born ignorant?

[seenbad]

Wow...just....wow.


You missed the Nazi parade by a good 65 years. Are all the libraries in Louisville filled with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter's xenophobic nationalist hate speeches or were you just born ignorant?

Stop right there. The guy has a take and put it out there. If you jump in to the conversation one more time like that and immediately jump to personal insults, I'll put it up to oust your ass right then and there. Period. You owe him an apology too. Do it.

[billy007]

Aw, hell, he's just pissed about his biography coming to the big screen:

[Axxman300]

Let me get this straight.

North Korea fires off a dud ICBM and then a bunch of SCUDs, which are a 50 year old missle and people get upset? What the fuck for?

Then...we CATCH some guys in the EARLY stages of planning for an attack and now everyone is scared?

Then Israel invades Gaza...again, because the Palestinians are assholes..again and this is somehow an escallation? Sounds like status quo, situation normal for those two.

And then there's secular violence in Iraq this week. Why wasn't this bed-wetter worried about that LAST week? Or the weeks before that?

I have news for you, none of this ranks as news or even scarey. This is yellow journalism at it's most blatant and cowardly. The United States just came off of a four day holiday weekend for cryin' out loud, I don't know what planet this guy's living on but I'll bet his asshole is stretched wider than mine is.

Dork...

[paymybills]

Stop right there. The guy has a take and put it out there. If you jump in to the conversation one more time like that and immediately jump to personal insults, I'll put it up to oust your ass right then and there. Period. You owe him an apology too. Do it.

This is the only weapon a liberal has. If you say "lets fight" or "those radical muslims/chinese/iranians...." you are to be called an extreme name such as Nazi or killer of children.
Most liberals feel better killing unborn babies than radical Muslims-"because its our choice..." and "if we would just negotiate..."
I say lets bear down and fuck things up. Shooting those missles on the pad would have been a start. But then it would be pre-emptive and "what did the poor N Koreans ever do to us" and "it was the CIA that set up and fueled the missles" and "Bush pressed the button because the Republicans want to go to war with N Korea-war for rice!!! "because Charlie Sheen said it was a conspiracy" ,,,blah, blah, blah... "
Why has it become so bad to say "lets win" or "lets stop it before it begins"

[MikeL]

This is the only weapon a liberal has.

I'm tired of such dull generalizations. We know SO well enough to be able to address him as an individual, rather than taking a swipe at a whole range of people. You're bitching about individuals taking shots at people by using lame, talk-radioesque labels. Don't you see the irony in that? Say something interesting and worth saying.

Japan is changing. A nuclear North Korea scares the hell out of them, and rightfully so. To have Japanese politicians openly lobbying for war is a measure of just how threatened they feel. There's certainly no love lost between Japs and Koreans, and this is only going to fuel tensions. If the Japs decided that their constitution allows for a "preemptive defense" then things will get really interesting. South Korea and North Korea will see their interests aligned against another nation for the first time. South Koreans know that if Japan strikes North Korea, Seoul likely goes up in smoke.

It's a damn shame we chose to fund that white elephant up in Alaska (NBMD) rather than the various theater-based ABM programs. If anything could make Japan feel secure, those would be it.

[Axxman300]

Japan can take care of itself. They actually have some suprising weaponry that they keep under wraps.

The next-gen ABM system looks good too:



But that's a few years away.

North Korean special forces make "In Theater" AMB systems too risky unless they're on ships with good anti-sub protection around them.

What I don't get is why everyone's mad at the U.S.? What did we do? China could shut NK down in a heart-beat and Russia isn't helping either. The Korean War was fought under the U.N. flag anyway so where are those assholes when you need them? Why is it our problem? The North Koreans have lied to us every time we've signed a diplomatic deals with them in the past. How will that be different now?

Kim Jung Il is a smart guy, he's got nothing to gain and everything to loose by rubing weenies with us and he knows it. This is just a shake-down for cash and trade and nothing more. He see's the UN and Europe and the U.S. offering all kinds of goodies to Iran because they MIGHT develope nukes and he's sitting there in North Korea with seven or eight nukes already and nobody' s offering him jack shit. He's playing a game nobody wants to play with him.

What a tool.

[weesfreewheelin]

North Korea is the perfect example of why dictatorships don't work. Eventually the figurehead feels the need to do a little chest thumping to remind the rest of the world(and himself) of his relevance. Where have we seen this before?

[MikeL]

ABL could have been in service by now, and I'm sure land-based TBMD could be secured by the Japs. I wouldn't call their weaponry surprising, but the fact that they try to build/design so much of it at home is. If anyone ever gets the F-22, my guess would be Japan. Sub-assembly in the US, and final assembly in Japan.

[graeme]

So Israel looks set to go into Lebanon. (again)
Japan is thinking about pre emptive strikes (against PDRK) (again)
USA and UK are trying to find a good reason to do Iran - lets face it, it has been 50 years since we last fucked them over- (oh god not again)
mmm, smells like it to me.
My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.
Maybe Edward was a prophet.
He looked at a map of the middle east pre ww1 and then now and said;
"Fuck, what did we all do? I feel less bad about using Mike as a hired gun since we're all gonna fucking die anyway"

The war is on. We just have to decide how to spin it now.

Lets call it "The early twenty first century reasonably worrying and slightly uncomfortable situation" (trademark copyright pending) and let Pepsi sponsor it.
Maybe we can ask the soldiers to stop shooting so we can cut to commercials.
Wouldn't want to miss the action.
This is, as they say, a nightmare.
Problem is, I am not dreaming.

[cyberfiddl]

This is, as they say, a nightmare.
Problem is, I am not dreaming.

Many liberals think that all this is of our (U.S.) making. Please help me understand that line of thought (not that I'd ever wanna be a liberal). I don't understand how so many peoples can blame us for the world's problems. Do YOU have any solutions?

• I don't think unilateral talks are a solution (see: North Korea)
• I don't think the U.N. is a solution (see: Iraq...BTW, Saddam Hussein killed hundreds of thousands of people in his own country. I'd say that qualifies HIM as a WMD)
• Russia and China won't be a solution. That I don't understand.
• MOST (not all) European countries appear to want to pacify anybody and everybody as long as it screws with the U.S.

I try to read different viewpoints on a daily basis and the only common thread I see is that talking is NOT solving anything.
Does the U.S. need to just lock the door and enjoy what we have right here in our own country? Dismantle the Statue of Liberty? We were built on immigration but now it seems some people wanna fuck us on that. "Come on in, blow up our buildings! Kill our people! Screw us at our own liberal/socialist game (healthcare, etal)! Your unborn child CAN be a citizen! Come on down! Your the next contestant on "Fuck The Greatest Nation On The Planet!"

It looks to me like most of the rest of the world wants to shit where they eat and leave us to clean it up. AND feed them. Whatever...

[seenbad]

While writing this article on July 9th I'd consider yellow journalism, it is creeping ever closer to the truth (the title of the thread) with the current actions being taken by Israel. Anybody watching this? Tinderbox!! Syria on the left and Iran on the right of Iraq with all our troops right there in the middle of it all. Pretty weighty situation. Israel even says "boo" at Syria.....it's on.

[graeme]

While writing this article on July 9th I'd consider yellow journalism, it is creeping ever closer to the truth (the title of the thread) with the current actions being taken by Israel. Anybody watching this? Tinderbox!! Syria on the left and Iran on the right of Iraq with all our troops right there in the middle of it all. Pretty weighty situation. Israel even says "boo" at Syria.....it's on.

Absolutely.
Also, the Israeli's were trying to suggest that the two Israeli soldiers have been moved to ....wait for it.....Iran. (yeah right)
Hezbollah is of course funded by Syria so it's a logical step that Israel goes for the jugular, seeing as Israel sees Hezbollah as terrorist group.
As you said seenbad...it's on.