Caltrops - Biohazard: Code Veronica





	[quote name="Senor Barborito MetaFilter Post"]I hated almost all of the answers I was given. To number one, America needs to declare complete support for the formation of a Palestinian state, continue to encourage Israel to withdraw all settlements, and react to threats from Israel to renege on the agreed upon roadmap with equally serious threats of witholding economic and military aid. Furthermore, America should demand accountability from Israel regarding its human rights record as regards any incidents of unprovoked violence towards Palestinian citizens. It should also demand from Palestine their utmost cooperation with Israel in bringing terrorists to justice (while pointing out to Israel once and for all that no Palestinian government can completely stop the bombing due to the low requirements to commit such an act). To that end, the US should insist upon the installation of a monitoring body to ensure that the Palestinian state honors its promises in this matter. Question two answer two, with perhaps a few words to the effect that different socio-economic systems than capitalism may better suit the needs of different countries. Question three answer four. Question four's answer number three is about right, but needs something added in the way of our deserving to be checked from direct interference with Iran by it being a nuclear power. It would be the highest form of hypocrisy to state that certain nations cannot possess any nuclear weapons when we possess so many. Iran has a right to be free of our interference - Pakistan is just as thoroughly Islamic, but currently in possession of nuclear weapons and we seem to be getting along with them quite well. Question number five is one I recently had a very long conversation with Steve@Linnwood about, and I don't think that any of the answers provided reflects an ideal policy. What I'd prefer the US do is this: recognize that Taiwan is a lost cause - China will either take it by force in fifteen years while ignoring our protests and threats because of our economic dependence on them, or we can let them take it now on our terms and get something in exchange for it. Kim Jong Il, as Steve@ pointed out, is China's proxy madman to put the fear of God into Japan and, later, to hold a sword over the head of the United States. The solution is to offer China occupation of Taiwan on a Hong Kong-style basis (many cultural norms/liberties preserved) immediately, and in exchange require China's agreement to step aside while we scour North Korea of military units loyal to Kim Jong Il (using troops pulled out of Iraq), and liberate the people being held in District-of-Columbia-sized concentration camps. This ends the Seattle problem, the human rights problem, provides the North Koreans with some much-needed hope of a better future, and simultaneously avoids creating serious economically dangerous tensions with China. Question number six I'm pretty obviously going to go with answer two, and add something to the effect that when Hans Blix was given full access to Saddam's palaces, it was pretty damned obvious that there were no WMDs - say what you will about Saddam's morality, but the man was no idiot, and he wouldn't have done that if there was anything left to find. The reason he played games with the inspectors so long is he could use it to milk concessions from the western powers, while keeping his neighboring enemies too worried to risk a major invasion. He failed to grasp the sea change in American politics wrought by neoconservatism, and thus his luck at brinksmanship eventually failed. I stated with iron certainty in January 2003 that we would find little or no WMDs of any kind specifically for these reasons. As for America's superpower status - withdraw all troops from all theaters except in situations in situations of extreme human rights violations as in Rwanda, or where there is a direct, significant threat against American lives. For instance nuclear weapons in the hands of a complete madman soon able to hit Seattle. For question number eight, I'd go with option number four because option number three fails to take into consideration the possibility that world peace is not a universal good. A cessation of hositilities of any significance would be nice, but a homogenous world culture and the formation of a globe-spanning state would inevitably spiral down into the worst form of totalitarianism simply because it would have a political monopoly on power. There being no competition, the system would lose the most basic reason to strive for improvement - the fear of your citizens switching sides. America can't win the war on terrorism because terrorism is simply a method of fighting when one has little to no resources or manpower. What America CAN do is provide real security to the American people like more heavily patrolled borders, more thorough cargo inspection from ships, providing better training and higher salaries to individuals doing baggage inspection at airports. Namely, start implementing real security rather than demanding people show ID at airports or refuse to let them bring nailclippers onboard a plane with an armed pilot who sits behind a reinforced steel door, or other egregious restrictions on freedom and attempts to circumvent the Constitution Furthermore, killing people of Islamic faith only serves to turn their family members into Jihadists, and plays right into the hands of men like bin Laden who are intent on the literal physical destruction of America. Beyond that, such actions in places like Iraq does not serve to encourage Iran, Saudi Arabia, et al to lower their oil prices any. Noticed the price of gas these days? For the final question, while option number three is somewhat on target, here's a suggestion - how about paying off some of the deficit before blowing more money on universal healthcare? How about drastically slashing the size of the military and shifting a fraction of those cost-cuts to development of more effective weapon systems? I'm all for socialized medicine in the Swedish style (universal coverage, choose your own doctor, government funding is allocated based upon which hospitals for a given region provide the highest successfully treated turnover rate), but we need establish some priorities. In any case, the whole thing felt wildly incomplete, and in many cases there just wasn't any option that really reflected my thoughts at all. posted by Ryvar at 4:15 AM PST on April 20 [/quote]