RE: US plans for Iraq.

>What do you mean? Britain constantly supports America. We
>are, in fact, your own personal aircraft carrier anchored
>just off the coast of Europe. Britsh troops served alongside
>Americans in all the countries you mentioned. You even
>requested British support in Afghanistan specifically for
>their specialist skills. Who patrols the no-fly zones in
>Iraq with America?

True, I stand corrected with regards to the UK. It was the rest of Europe I was referring to…and if you would have read any of my earlier posts you would have realized that I omit the UK from the rest of that feeble excuse for a continent.

>And as for those few thousand poorly equipped targets it
>seems more and more that that is exactly what they are
>becoming to America. How many British troops did you manage
>to kill in the Gulf War? How about your New Zealand and
>Canadian allies? Your own Government is now charging your
>own Air Force personnel with negligence. Is it the fault of
>the targets or those doing the targetting?

I’ve addressed this issue before. Fratracide happens in war. It is unfortunate, but it happens. We have killed our own troops as well. What I was referring to was the “blue helmet” police of the UN. They are so handcuffed by what they can and cannot do that their presence is nothing but a joke to those who are supposed to obey them.

>Have a walk round any British town and read the names on the
>war memorials and see just how many were willing to
>sacrifice their lives to make a difference in the world.

Hmmmm…was that sacrifice or was that pure desperation for your own survival? What America did on your behalf, sending its sons and daughters to help defend you, that was true SACRIFICE.

>Where was America when Britain was fighting in Malaya,
>Borneo, Aden, Kenya? Don’t commend Britain in one post for
>her resilience in WWII and then accuse her of not playing
>her part elsewhere.

Yawn…this “where was America when…” debate is getting old. The bottom line is: America showed up and kicked azz when the time came and that’s what you people should remember!!!!

RE: US plans for Iraq.

“Your ancestors wouldn´t be happy about this comment. Where did you think your country got mostly everything from, darling?. At least a bit of respect for your roots would be advisable. And not mixing puntual discrepancies with an easy critizism of a whole continent.”

I no longer wish to acknowledge that Europe had anything whatsoever to do with the U.S. Its too painful for me to fathom that at one time Europe actually had a “pair”, but now is nothing more than a flock of castrated sheep.

RE: China’s accelerating growth, implications?

“panic”?

Not at all. You must remember that during that 15-20 years we bailed the Euros out of WWII while also defeating Japan…after that, America became the great economic power of the West by default because the other great powers were now in shambles (which, by the way, America bailed them out of as well). So, tell me, what great event is going to propel China into an economic power by default? The only one I can think of is one where the entire world is destroyed…and thus eliminating their opportunity in the process. 😉

RE: US plans for Iraq.

“I do find it worrying that America has turned it’s attention to Iraq without finishing off other matters first. al-Qaeda is still active and far from beaten, Afghanistan is on the brink of collapse and you still haven’t dealt with the people who spread anthrax on your own shores. Would it not be wise to finish one war before starting another?”

Kev, don’t you worry your precious little head about America and what we can and cannot handle at the moment. Of course, maybe if you Euros weren’t so afraid of the big-bad al-Queda/Taliban/Kosovar Albanians/Bosnian Serbs/et al you would send more than a few dozen (whoops, I mean few thousand) poorly equipped targets (whoops, there I go again, I mean soldiers) over to where they are needed to secure and rebuild those countries and at the same time not need American soldiers there to back you up…then our forces wouldn’t be stretched so thin to begin with!

Instead, you want “proof” that we should be doing what we are doing (or are going to do). Why don’t you state what you really want…a way out of having to sacrifice and make a difference in the world. You Euros make me so sick. “Hey, can’t we all just get along? The UN will put a band-aid on it and it will all be better.” Just get out of our way if you cannot stomach what needs to be done. x(

RE: China’s accelerating growth, implications?

Hmmmmm….“insolvent banks”?….now where have I heard that before??? Ah yes, America 1929…jut before the great depression. }>

Iraq may have nukes…not just oil

Asia Times
Sept 24, 2002

You doubt it? Think again and consider this September 13 Pravda (yes, Pravda, the reformed former Soviet propaganda sheet) headline: “200 SOVIET NUKES LOST IN UKRAINE”. Who says so? None other than Petro Symonenko, the leader of the (opposition) Ukrainian Communist Party. According to Symonenko, speaking at a public meeting in Kharkiv (eastern Ukraine) on September 11, there were 2,400 nuclear warheads in Ukraine when the Soviet Union disintegrated, although the transfer to Russia (supposedly completed in 1997) of only 2,200 of them has been officially documented. “The fate of the remaining 200 warheads is unknown,” Symonenko said, claiming his information was based on the findings of a now-defunct parliamentary commission. Serhiy Sinchenko, head of the parliamentary investigation, admitted that some of the warheads had been “lost”.

This is, of course, not the first time that claims about missing nukes have been made. On September 7, 1997, former Russian national security adviser General Alexander Lebed (who died in a helicopter crash in Siberia in April of this year) told the US CBS News’ 60 Minutes program that the Russian military had lost track of over 100 suitcase-size one-kiloton nuclear bombs produced in the 1970s for the Soviet intelligence services (KGB, GRU).

There is also ample documentation of smuggling and theft of weapons-grade nuclear materials. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported 175 nuclear smuggling incidents since 1993, 18 of which involved highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient in an atomic bomb. A new database by the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University terms the protection of nuclear and radioactive material “woefully inadequate” and records 643 cases of smuggling and theft. Russian authorities say that in the past three years alone, they have broken up hundreds of nuclear-material smuggling deals. They say their nuclear weapons are under “safe and reliable” protection, but admit that nuclear materials are less well-protected, including storage sites for an estimated 1,100 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and 160 metric tons of plutonium.

What’s most troubling about the Symonenko claims is the existence of a tape recording examined by US intelligence and said to confirm high-level Ukrainian involvement in selling high-tech weapons to Iraq. The tape, made by a bodyguard who has since fled Ukraine, records a conversation between Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and the head of the country’s military export service, Valeriy Malev. It is said to contain evidence of military sales to Iraq of Kalchuga radar equipment through shadowy Jordanian middle men. (Malev could not be questioned because he died in a mysterious road accident in March.) The fact that Kuchma has recently boasted of his warm links with Iraq adds credibility to US suspicions that Ukrainian nuclear materials (if not whole weapons) may have come into Iraqi possession.

rest of the article…
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DI24Ak01.html

RE: Iraq; a question of oil.

“Who was more barbaric than Hitler and the Nazis? Where was America in 1939, ’40 and ’41? It’s perhaps as well we didn’t just pack up in 1939 and wait for America to come and ‘save’the free world then.”

Hmmmm…perhaps you’re just not intelligent enough to understand what I was implying? Let me try again. If you Eurowhimps wouldn’t have appeased Hitler like you did in ’39 (actually, starting in ’36 as the first German troops crossed the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne and began reoccupation of Rhineland) then there wouldn’t have even been a need for America to get involved in Europe. You didn’t lift a finger to stop Hitler then and you refuse to lift a finger to stop Hussein now. You are a weak people…(excluding the Brits who have actually managed to maintain a backbone even after years of living so close to the rest of you)…and thus we must carry the load once again.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.