[ChronoReverse]

Russia plans to upgrade their nukes


I certainly feel re-assured by this.

[Terminator]

its an endless cycle. we're human. we like to make things bigger, better, and more powerful.

[Flipside]

They can plan to upgrade their stockpile, but the question is at the moment, can they afford to?

[Corsair]

*BOOM*

[Carl]

So? the US keeps upgrading their nukes too. if not, then in WWIII we'll have a bunch of cumbersome soviet era missiles that are past their experation date.

[Terminator]

Originally posted by Flipside
They can plan to upgrade their stockpile, but the question is at the moment, can they afford to?

Well if Bush pulls off a Reagan then they probably won't.

[vyper]

You build star wars, they build more nukes.

Yay.

[Rictor]

Oh boy! We're going to banktrupt the evil Soviets again.

...oh wait.

[Grey Wolf]

Well, at the moment I'm just waiting until we start talking about Comrade Putin from the Kremlin paying a visit to Stalingrad.....

[Corsair]

For the Rodina!

[IceFire]

Super...more nukes.

I wonder if they are just recycling the warheads and putting them in newer missiles. I think that may be what they are doing...because really, they don't need to be bigger.

Its probably a balance of power issue...the US has a shield, we have a better missile.  End result = same.  We should just go back to sticks and stones.

[Rictor]

No, the result is not the same. Several hundred billion will have been spent, to maintain the status quo. Money that could have gone to, oh I don't know, maybe feeding the hungry? Giving little African kids with AIDS their medicine?

Yeah, crazy, I know.

[Ford Prefect]

Sometimes I get so tired of the endless dick size contest that is life in this world.

[Liberator]

Originally posted by Corsair
*BOOM*

no, no....
[SIZE=10]kraka-[/SIZE] [SIZE=40]DOOOOOOOOOOOOM[/SIZE]

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Rictor
No, the result is not the same. Several hundred billion will have been spent, to maintain the status quo. Money that could have gone to, oh I don't know, maybe feeding the hungry? Giving little African kids with AIDS their medicine?

Yeah, crazy, I know.

You know, it would help if many of those in positions of power in Africa actually cared about doing so... we (as in 'The West') cannot help those in Africa effectively if so many African leaders do not want to be helped.  Throwing money at the problem would accomplish nothing more than enrich the warlords and militias even more while making incidentally helping some poor farmers be educated.  There are leaders who refuse to allow western vaccines due to paranoia.  How can you operate effectively in that kind of climate?

Principles are good, but the cold hard facts is that Africa is, to overgeneralize, a big fat mess.  This also ignores the cold hard economic facts about missile defense vs trying to feed Africa - missile development pumps a lot of money into the aerospace and tech sectors, feeding africa just throws money 'away' - particularly given how much of it will go to those who we least want it to reach.

[Omniscaper]

Heres a hilarious animation of the future for our planet
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/endofworld.html

Just watch this to learn the proper way to react to this situation:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/fwordflash.html

[Rictor]

Shrike: well, the way I see it, if you (and I mean you as in the general you) are interested in helping someone, you will do so whether or not anyone supports you, or whether or not anyone else is helping.

The West is not blameless for the economic problems present in Africa. Sure, the local leaders are seldom any better, but one party does not escape blame because another is also guilty.

The thing is, as far as I know,most of the money thats going to Africa is going to pay for the immediate necessities, not to build a long-term sustainable solutions, to break the dependency. But then, dependency keeps the powerless firmly underfoot, so I'm not too sure that those in power are interested in that.

Yeah, its a complicated situation, and one I don't claim to know much, if anything, about. But what I meant was that the money, instead of lining the pockets of the weapons indusrty to produce products that will never be used, or that we hope will never be used, the money could go to help someone, I just threw out Africa as an example..

[aldo_14]

Russia should spend the money on sorting out rebuilding the countries economy.
America should spend the money sorting out their national debt (or simply to supply the existing military troops they are using).

Is there anyone who doesn't think that the missile defence system is simply a giant white elephant?

[BlackDove]

Won't there be a point in time when both countries' funds are depleted and when they just say

"Oh well, I'm out of money, I'm gonna dissapear as a county. Might as well flip the switch - I've spent all my money on it, and if I can't exist as a county, I'll at least make sure no-one will"

* click *

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Rictor
I just threw out Africa as an example..

It's a bad example though. Several countries in Africa have no one but themselves to blame for the current situation. For instance Angola and Nigeria have huge oil revenues yet still have lots of people starving or dying of AIDS (In fact, if I remember correctly 1/3 of Angola's oil revenue dissappears annually due to mismanagement or corruption).

I really doubt that throwing money at the problem would help much. That doesn't mean that cancelling the debt they own the first world would be a bad idea though.