The Spring BBSNews › Topic 23
Help!

Gulf War 1.1?

Topic 23 · 20 responses · archived october 2000
» This is an archived thread from 2000. Want to pick up where they left off? post in the live News conference →
~terry seed
In case no one has noticed, Saddam Hussein isn't allowing any more UN inspections, and the U.S. is preparing to bomb Iraq in retaliation. Support from erstwhile "allies" is luke-warm, at best, although it is notable that the French, at least, are not making objections, either. Isreal, meanwhile, is breaking out the gas masks on the assumption that Iraq will "get back" at the U.S. by throwing Scuds loaded with who-knows-what at Israel. Sanctions have killed over a million Iraqis since the end of the war. Most Iraqis probably think that air strikes (Clinton is obviously afraid to actually send in ground forces) won't kill or maim more than are already dying from malnutrition and curable diseases.
~TIM #1
THere is only one way to end this and insure that it won't happen again anytime soon. NUKE THEM. Turn the whole country into a sea of glass, and any other nation will think twice about doing this to us. Do not send in ground troops. One American life is worth more than everything living in Iraq.
~wolf #2
wait, wait, wait! why punish the innocent people living under the rule of a tyrant? they don't know he's a tyrant, but we do. and wouldn't nukeing them have ramifications? i.e. fallout????
~TIM #3
fallout can be controlled. I am not talking punish. I am talking eradicate. You are 100% correct. Nuking them would have long lasting ramifications. No other third rate country would dare to defy the United States for quite some time. Terrorists using third world countries as bases would become unwelcome over night, All the harassment of Israel would stop overnight. If we had done this to Libya, when we did the air strike, this situation with Iraq would not be happening. As far as the other Mid-East coun ries go, split Iraq's oil amongst them and none of them will say a word.
~wolf #4
so, how does one go about controlling a nuclear strike? we do have allies in that general area. (ok, i'm not versed in politics and all that, OBVIOUSLY) but i don't understand why so many people think nukeing them is the answer. (for any conflict)
~TIM #5
When you nuke someone, they never bother you again. Other people in similar situations, start re-thinking their position. To put the how in perspective: you can nuke the capitol building, and leave the white house relatively un harmed, and Arlington, VA would be unscathed. That tight enough for you? I hope so, because that is as good as it gets right now. Aren't "Enhanced Radiation Devices" wonderful? Fallout? Next to nonexistant, with half-lives of the elements measured in minutes. This is known as a tactical nuke, as opposed to strategic nukes, which, by treaty, we've destroyed most of.
~wolf #6
ok, so you're a truck driver now that you've retired from covert ops, right? (you do know that i'm teasing, right? *toothy wolf grin*)
~TIM #7
I was never covert. I was assigned to G-2, III Corps. Four years. Giving detailed briefings was a very small part of my job.
~wolf #8
that's it, 4 years? not 20? no retirement????
~TIM #9
I was in for 6 years. Two years were spent on other assignments. When you work where I was, you get a real close look at the quality of leadership at the top. The thought of going to war with these people leading was enough to scare the hell out of me. Most of our senior leadership was extremely inept.
~ratthing #10
a friend of mine is an O4 in the navy doing medical research. he says the same thing. his view is that the only reason the US is such a global superpower is that the military leaders in other nations are just more fucked up than the ones we have!
~TIM #11
He is right about that. But the situation is volitile, it could change overnight.
~autumn #12
And fortunately it has.
~TIM #13
I assume by fortunately, we got better, not they got better.
~autumn #14
I meant that the pressure is off because Iraq consented to the UN inspections.
~TIM #15
Temporarily anyway.
~autumn #16
As you (or Ray) said, the situation can change overnight.
~TIM #17
Unfortunately, that is very true.
~terry #18
60 Minutes showed a few of Saddams 40 or more palaces. The sanctions are making the power elite much richer because they control all the smuggling now. Sanctions are making the rich richer and killing off the poor.
~terry #19
Cyber-terrorism: Threat or Menace? Yes, right now all Saddam can do is sit in his bunker and spew over-heated rhetoric. But soon it may be possible to trash the U.S.'s information technology systems in a way that'll make the Y2K bug look like a crashed floppy disk. For more info: http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9812/18/terrorism.idg/index.html
~sprin5 #20
Saddam has troops on the move, opportunizing on the US Navy ship blowup and the Middle East events yesterday. Meanwhile, oil prices skyrocket and the Northeast is hit with a heating oil crisis. Not to mention the plummeting stock market.
Help!
The Spring · spring.net · News / Topic 23 · AustinSpring.com