< rant mode ON > The *last* thing this planet needs is an "invincible America."
IMO the only good thing to come out of the Iraq invasion and the recent invasion of Lebanon is that they have demonstrated that both the United States and Israel, *far* from being "invincible" with their stockpiles of the latest and greatest weapons on the planet, are basically helpless when dealing with a people who believe that they are fighting for the preservation of their own country and their way of life. All that both countries have done is demonstrated their own *weakness*. It's a lesson the French finally learned in Algeria (after believing in their own invincibility for decades) and tried to convey to the US when it invaded Iraq. But it's a lesson that neither the United States or Israel seem to "get." If the TM organization is going to claim that they're butt-bouncing for world peace, for chrissakes don't call the course "Invincible America." What is probably fueling this stock market rise is surges in the Defense industry. To quote from a post I made in 2002: Before scrolling down, think for a moment and come up with a figure you think represents the U.S. percentage of worldwide arms sales. >From the U.S. Department of State website (http://www.state.gov/t/vc/rls/rpt/wmeat/99_00/), Arms Sales by Country, 1999 (latest available [at that time, and possibly now]). The figure to the left is the ranking, figure to the right is the number of millions of dollars of sales, countries that sell 0 (less than a million) are left off. Answer to the math question -- total up the arms sales by ALL other countries on this list during 1999 and you get a combined total of 18,680 million, or only 56.6% of the arms sold by the U.S. during that same period. The United States sells 43.4% of the weapons sold on the planet. 1 United States 33,000 2 United Kingdom 5,200 3 Russia 3,100 4 France 2,900 5 Germany 1,900 6 Sweden 675 7 Israel 600 8 Australia 550 9 Canada 550 10 Ukraine 550 11 Italy 380 12 China - Mainland 320 13 Belarus 310 14 Bulgaria 200 15 Korea, North 140 16 Netherlands 140 17 Indonesia 100 18 Greece 90 19 Czech Republic 80 20 Spain 70 21 Turkey 70 22 Finland 50 23 Switzerland 50 24 Romania 40 25 Austria 30 26 Belgium 30 27 Georgia 30 28 Libya 30 29 Mexico 30 30 Poland 30 31 South Africa 30 32 Brazil 20 33 China - Taiwan 20 34 Eritrea 20 35 Japan 20 36 Korea, South 20 37 Moldova 20 38 Norway 20 39 Serbia and Montenegro 20 40 Singapore 20 41 Chile 10 42 Croatia 10 43 Denmark 10 44 Hungary 10 45 India 10 46 Iran 10 47 Kazakhstan 10 48 Pakistan 10 49 Slovakia 10 50 Uzbekistan 10 51 Philippines 5 Dylan sung his song "Masters Of War" about AMERICA. Nothing has changed since he sung it except that it has become more convinced of its invincible mastery. < rant mode OFF > To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
