Caltrops - Biohazard: Code Veronica





	[quote name="Senor Barborito MetaFilter Post"]This talk of conquest is ridiculous. The people making policy in America, Europe, and yes, China, are the people making <i>money</i> and lots of it. The Chinese, American, and European markets are inextricably enmeshed at this point - there isn't going to be any war because nobody with any actual say in the matter stands to reap huge benefits from it. The world economy is a three legged table right now and pulling any one will cause the whole thing to fall over. Try thinking of world events in terms of cost/benefits analyses. Example: the cost of invading Iraq was projected to be minimal in terms of overhead, next to nothing in terms of markets lost1, and years and years worth of petroleum would be gained - all of which would be funneled back into the greater American economy while those who did the invading charged admission at the pump. That flawed analysis is, more than PNAC position papers, more than vague accusations of neocon 'zionism', and more than farcical nuclear weapons pretexts what actually led to the invasion. This is why there is little outrage over North Korea having developed nuclear weapons on Clinton and Bush's watches while at the same time the current administration has puppies over Iran developing them. It isn't just development of a pretext for the next resource acquisition - it's genuine concern Iran might develop said weapons and the window on another oil-hunt might be closed. Or is there some other reason that it's 'okay' for a Muslim country like Pakistan to have nuclear weapons but not Iran? Jumping back to the topic at hand: what's going to keep happening is that smaller markets with more resources - whether in terms of raw material (Iraq) or infrastructure (Taiwan) or skill (Taiwan) - will keep getting absorbed by those so large that to destroy one of them would destroy the economic ecosystem in which multi-national corporations now thrive. The reason why our current administration doesn't think much of 'old Europe' is that with their lack of significant armed forces, there's no reason to invite them to Cheney's next duck hunt. <font size=1><sup>1</sup>Actually, France and Russia lost out in terms of markets, but since they're our competitors as major global economies go . . .</font> posted by Ryvar at 4:46 PM PST on May 30 [/quote]