World War III: "Hey, we're still here! "

[Onkel Neal]

Great article:

This past month may be remembered as the one when World War III broke out. Not the thing itself, obviously, but the concept, the memory, the nightmare, which had been buried in the basement of our cultural consciousness since the end of the Cold War. The beast suddenly broke out of the basement and it's in our face again.


http://www.slate.com/id/2178792/

[CCIP]

I agree! It's just what I've been saying for a while now, put eloquently and pragmatically enough.

[Chock]

Yup, nothing new there, but concisely and well put all the same, and an entertaining read, if you can be entertained by reading about the imminent prospect of being welded to your kitchen wall by a nuclear air burst. It's just as well that those of my age are already used to coping with this kind of malarkey.

Now, where did I put that silly 'Protect and Survive' leaflet the British Govt handed all us limeys a few years ago? I seem to recall it was only marginally less ludicrous than the 'Duck and Cover' campaign the US had.

1,2,3,4 we don't want a nuclear war, etc.

:D Chock

[Skybird]

For years I am preaching that pakistan is the most dangerous state ion earth, not just since Newsweek, I heared, had such a title on the front page some weeks or months ago.

I saw the need to rethink and change my former stand on nuclear weapons over the past 18 months. we cannot afford anymore to see their use not as an option if for example the iranian prgram should be shut down by force. I am sure that conventional weapons alone are not capable to achieve that, while ground wars to invade Iran are an incalculatable risk which to accept we also cannot afford.

Meanwhile, well-meaning sweethearts faced a terrible crush recently, and could not imagine where the hell it all of a sudden was coming from. They are said to be "dissappointed" now, and that almost breaks my heart

Before giving the link, i need to dry my tears, wait a moment...

So, done.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7120399.stm

when the story is fulfilled in the not so far away future, it will have become the greatest diplomatic disgrace Europe ever has produced itself since Chamberlain was sent to Hitler.

[Chock]

Now you know why diplomatic discussions take so long, and generally get nowhere, check this out from Skybird's linked article:

"I expected more and am therefore disappointed," the EU official said.
"I will be in telephonic contact with the Iranians before the end of December," he added, saying the envoys would meet again if circumstances permitted.


'I will be in telephonic contact':rotfl:

:D Chock

[Sea Demon]

Now you know why diplomatic discussions take so long, and generally get nowhere, check this out from Skybird's linked article:

"I expected more and am therefore disappointed," the EU official said.
"I will be in telephonic contact with the Iranians before the end of December," he added, saying the envoys would meet again if circumstances permitted.

'I will be in telephonic contact':rotfl:

:D Chock


Sounds like something President Bush would say. :lol:

[Torplexed]

Mebbe it's a new form of 80's nostalgia. All that's old is new again. :p

Would-you-like-to-play-a-game?

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/3/30/250px-WOPR.jpg

[Chock]

The thing which puzzled me more than anything about the movie 'Wargames', was that if all that supercomputing power was reliant on 16 kilobyte per second modems, why was there anything to worry about? halfway through sending the launch codes it would have had to redial, having lost the connection:rotfl:

These days the war will be delayed while we wait for a patch so that the launch codes will actually work in the first place...

'Sir, I'm afraid we cannot launch, as we've forgotten our Gamespy log on password'

:D Chock

[Torplexed]

The thing which puzzled me more than anything about the movie 'Wargames', was that if all that supercomputing power was reliant on 16 kilobyte per second modems, why was there anything to worry about? halfway through sending the launch codes it would have had to redial, having lost the connection:rotfl:

These days the war will be delayed while we wait for a patch so that the launch codes will actually work in the first place...

'Sir, I'm afraid we cannot launch, as we've forgotten our Gamespy log on password'

:D Chock
Rather flawed movie to be sure. I think each silo has it own launch code. But then it was made back in the good old days when men were men and computers were huge boxes with thousands of meaningless lights. :arrgh!:

[Stealth Hunter]

LEAVE MY COUNTRY ALONE, BUSH. IT'S GETTING OLD...:stare:

[Chock]

I think I've come up with a plan to avert the imminent nuclear war, but it all depends on one, well two, things...

1. Does the CD need to be in the drive for a nuclear missile to launch?

2. Does the software that launches it have Starforce copy protection on it?

:D Chock

[Stealth Hunter]

OR does our military even know how to launch them, considering how the war's going?:rotfl:

[Chock]

Well, they shouldn't need to with my cool plan...

We flirt over to Pakistan, sneak into their missile base (we'll probably need Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy or some other eighties brat actor for that bit, they can always sneak past army base entrance checkpoints), then we simply nick the CD and swap it for a DOS version of Missile Command, they'll never get that to work on Vista, or whatever their missile software is, and they'll be so busy messing about with trying different drivers and posting questions on how to sort it out on the rogue state forums (probably in general musharaf topics), they'll never think to check in the CD drive, and even if they do, they'll be knackered, because Missile Command is no fun without that big trackball thingy.

:D Chock

[Stealth Hunter]

My God! It's the perfect plan...

We also need the guy from "That 70's Show" and Pop from "Sanford & Son". Unfortunately, he needs to be exhumed...

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g17/Sgt-Smithy/neandetaler_nt.gif

[MothBalls]

Many people don't realize how many close calls there were that almost started WWIII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_III#Historical_close_calls

I used to worry about Gerald Ford tripping over something and accidentally hitting the button. Now I worry about Bush tripping over his own thoughts and starting it.

I don't think we need to be as worried about Iran. I think they know that if they were to launch anything, the retaliatory strike would wipe out their country. The cold war stalemate, mutually assured destruction.

Reminds me of the line in the movie Peacekeeper when the woman tells Clooney "I'm not worried about some hothead dictator who wants to add 10 missiles to his arsenal. I'm worried about the guy who only wants one".

[August]

The cold war stalemate, mutually assured destruction.

Well, not so mutual. It'd be a long time after Iran started making bombs before they had enough to actually wipe us out and even longer before it was assured, whereas right now we could turn their entire country into a glass floored, self lighting parking lot and it wouldn't even make a dent in our nuke inventory.

[Onkel Neal]

Now you know why diplomatic discussions take so long, and generally get nowhere, check this out from Skybird's linked article:

"I expected more and am therefore disappointed," the EU official said.
"I will be in telephonic contact with the Iranians before the end of December," he added, saying the envoys would meet again if circumstances permitted.

'I will be in telephonic contact':rotfl:

:D Chock




Sounds like something President Bush would say. :lol:

Speaking of which, time to trot this out again (http://www.subsim.com/cnn_story_040105_bush.html) :88)

It's a little dated but helps paint a better picture of America's best 21st century president.

[Heibges]

Mebbe it's a new form of 80's nostalgia. All that's old is new again. :p

Would-you-like-to-play-a-game?

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/3/30/250px-WOPR.jpg

What really scared me when I was a kid was The Day After. And it was on ABC!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/

[Heibges]

The cold war stalemate, mutually assured destruction.

Well, not so mutual. It'd be a long time after Iran started making bombs before they had enough to actually wipe us out and even longer before it was assured, whereas right now we could turn their entire country into a glass floored, self lighting parking lot and it wouldn't even make a dent in our nuke inventory.

Mutual Assured Destruction ended in the 70's and 80's.

Cap Wineberger and members of the Le May clique were all propents of Nuclear Utilization Theory.

Carter and Rickover were still in favor of MAD.

The Trident Submarine was a MAD weapon.

The MX Missle, B1 Bomber, and Star Wars were all NUT weapons.

[Heibges]

[quote=Chock]Now you know why diplomatic discussions take so long, and generally get nowhere, check this out from Skybird's linked article:

[quote]"I expected more and am therefore disappointed," the EU official said.
"I will be in telephonic contact with the Iranians before the end of December," he added, saying the envoys would meet again if circumstances permitted.

'I will be in telephonic contact':rotfl:

:D Chock


Wasn't he in the Arkansas National Guard not the Texas National Guard? Or I should really say the Air National Guard.

[STEED]

People, people there is no such thing as WW3 it was all a lie, but on the other hand WW4. :roll: