Saturday, January 25, 2003

The LA Times reports that the US is considering a nuclear strike against Iraq. The physical effectiveness of such a strike - if constrained to keep most of the radiation underground - has been a subject of debate over the past decade. Even if it did work the political impact would be massive and would undoubtedly harden much of the planet's population against the US. One can only hope that this option is very unlikely, but given Bush's huge right wing fueled testosterone to IQ ratio there may be cause for worry. More likely, and perhaps even more dangerous (certainly more deadly in the short term), would be a nuclear response from Israel if they were attacked chemically or biologically. 8:19:46 AM     Secretary Rumsfeld is working hard to prevent anything like a draft from coming back ... in particular he has suggested that those drafted during the Vietnam war added no value. It is so important for the ruling party to make sure most of the grunts come from the lower castes - few things could erode support from the right sort of people than to see their sons (and maybe their daughters if you really wanted a fair draft) going off to die for oil. Shudder ... What if a draft was constructed that picked people as a function of how blessed their families had been by the economy? One model might be to average family income for three years and take young people starting with the richest ... if you need 500,000 - take the 500,000 wealthiest. Of course this wouldn't work as it is un-American to have a non-representative mix of young people sharing the burden to defend the democracy ... by the way ... Can you imagine the uproar if anyone in the Clinton administration made a statement like Rumsfeld? 6:23:41 AM

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