Comments on: Soft Power

By: Bluetoe2

Bluetoe2 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:54:16 +0000

Roman emperorers always had to mollify the Praetorian Guards, the real power behind the thrown. American presidents must mollify the DOD or else.

By: selise

selise — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:33:31 +0000

i don’t care if he has feet of clay. he still did a good thing by speaking out when he did, and unless i misunderstand what he did i will always admire that. very few people, regardless of their other weaknesses or strengths, do what he did.

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:26:14 +0000

Scott Ritter is one of my heroes who has not yet developed feet of clay (that scurrilous rumor of pedophilia being bogus). He was the final thing I read before in fall 02 that convinced me that there were no WMDs in Iraq. I don’t know a more thorough, smart, honest person.

And yes I’ve know about the fatwa, but it’s useless to use that as evidence here because everyone thinks the Grand Ayatollahs are rabid terrorists and wouldn’t believe a word they say.

By: katymine

katymine — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:20:48 +0000

It turns out that Ritter was stationed in Turkey when I was stationed in Greece, he served with the best man at my wedding who was a fellow nuclear weapons specialist. So Ritter who is military trained and worked with the UN Unscum for years in the field of nuclear weapons who spoke strongly out against the Iraq war and any action against Iran. The grand Ayatollah issued a fatwa - serious shit…

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa saying the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islam. The fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at an August 2005 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:17:00 +0000

Here’s a teaser for an article that requires subscription.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/...../158?rss=1

By: Raven

Raven — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:15:48 +0000

While you are at it disband the entire military, they are all just a bunch of bloodthirsty assassins anyway.

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:12:05 +0000

Ah the molybdenum contamination. Thought I was the only one who remembered Ritter talking about that. Heh. In about 05 or 06, I went to a seminar at Asia Society on Iran. I asked one of the experts about that and he looked at me like I was nuts and punted by saying that was not a problem.

By: jimhicks3

jimhicks3 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:11:45 +0000

“a rebalancing of America’s national security portfolio” after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years.
The Bush Admim. spent tons of money but didn’t invest in much of anything that I can tell. Mostly, from my point of view, they gutted the national guard to man the occupation of I & A.
Plus out-sourcing half the work being done (as it turns out all gov jobs not just ‘over there’) paying 4 or 5 times what it would cost if done ‘in house’ like in the olden days.
This is not investment - unless,of course, investment means what all those geniuses were doing on wall street for the last few years.
jh3

By: Eureka Springs

Eureka Springs — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:09:13 +0000

Hey! I want to be one of those fancy new peace workers… and I will do it for half the price of a contracted Blackwater employee with far fewer bullets. I guarantee it.

By: katymine

katymine — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:07:01 +0000

The 16 agency NIE on Iran was a scam, heard Scott Ritter speak on the “stopped” their program in 2002 but according to Ritter, there was NEVER a nuclear weapons program. Again it put those who refute that Iran NEVER sought a nuclear weapons program have to try to prove a negative.

Due to sanctions and restrictions on purchase of uranium ore, Iran has not been able to get their hands on pure ore to use in their centrifuges. What they are using is uranium ore found in Iran which is contaminated. Iran is unable to remove those contaminates from the ore and when used it blows up the centrifuges.

It was the slight open door to allow bombing of Iran by having that phrase “stopped their nuclear weapons program” by then releasing some new info saying they restarted it. All monitoring organizations have denied that Iran has been developing weapons but creating domestic nuclear power program.