Brad, At 04:46 21/09/02 -0400, you wrote: >Morning, ye across the pond (it's 04:30 AM here in the colonies)!
Cor! Much enjoyed your piece. And I even understood you this time! Not one mention of Kant, Habermas or Nietzsche! (Glad that you're reading one of my gurus, though -- Freeman Dyson.) Please continue to get up at 4.30am. I didn't realise my postings were so eagerly awaited. Keith <<<< Keith Hudson wrote: > [snip] > But any serious attempt at regime change in Iraq -- which Bush now seems > intent on despite what the UN may say -- will only produce a satrap of > America -- in effect a colony in the old-fashioned imperialist tradition. > Surely this would only screw up tensions within the other Islamic countries > to breaking point? And then what happens if there are further > demonstrations by the Western-seeking, frustrated young in Iran, Saudi > Arabia and the Arab Emirates? If the imams crack down hard, then America > would have to invade those countries, too, in order to ensure that further > Al Qaeda-type terrorist network don't develop. Empire building doesn't come without blood sweat and tears, but isn't it worth it? > > So far, America seems to be buying off Russia and China with diplomatic > sops, but how will they react if America enroaches even further into the > Middle East in order to protect its oil supplies? My guess is that America > has calculated that Russia will be no problem however strongly it protests. > After all, its armed forces are so demoralised that it's highly likely that > Russia's missile sites are so badly maintained that missiles would never > get off the ground. I'm not so sure they couldn't jerry-rig a couple. I believe it was the submarine K-19 where the crew did an absolutely amazing job of designing and implementing a RYO reactor coolant plumbing kludge which kept the vessel from blowing up, at the cost of ~only~ about 16 or was it 36 crewmen dying horrible deaths from radiation poisoning. I think the Ruskies could get a few ICBMs into the air to come down and detonate somewhere or other. It's that Zek spirit of enterprise! > > On the whole, though, China has not been objecting strongly. True, it seems > to have internal succession problems just at present which are distracting > its leadership but, given America's considerable help in getting China into > the WTO, one wonders whether or not there's some secret deal going on here. > America knows that China's armed forces and missile potential (increasingly > sophisticated) are certainly not demoralised, and China is going to need > increasing imports of Middle East oil in the coming years. Let's face it: There's still lebensraum between Mongolia and the line between [how did Churchill put it?] Trieste in the Adriatic and Stetin in the Baltic? China, today, just wants to secure its western frontiers. > > Meanwhile, Japan is flat on its back economically and unlikely to recover > for many years, if at all. I wonder about this. Are the Japanese young people getting high? Are the Japanese young people listening to MP3? If yes, then all's more or less well there. We live in a postindustrial world, don't we? > Western Europe (particularly Germany and Italy) > seems to be heading the same way pretty fast. In any case, neither have any > military clout. As to England . . . well, we've been a colony of America > ever since WWII and Blair will continue our sycophantic role with his usual > enthusiasm. Keith, we all trust that, if push comes to shove, once again, never before will so few have done so much for so many -- and at Bomber Command they will once again run the numbers and if not enough bombs fall in the target radius they'll enlarge the radius, and if they once again find that British airmen are dying at a higher rate than U.S. airmen due to British planes having smaller escape hatches, they will once again suppress this information to avoid possibly negatively affecting the morale of the British airmen (ref. Freeman Dyson, _Disturbing the Universe_). God save the Queen! (And wear your seat belt when you go to the store to buy that margarine with Princess Diana's picture on it if they still are making it!) \brad mccormick > > Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
