Tom,
thats if the russians can get their military in order! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4674366.stm
i think that one of the only thing stopping the hawks invading all the countries that they don't like are the mid terms, with elections coming up the republicans would be hard pushed retaining any seats if they had a draft in operation as one would be needed to expand or fight any more wars. north korea know that they are safe from an invasion as they have a nuke. it mightn't work properly or have a rocket that can go very far but its back to MAD again and i believe that that is one of the things behind iran making a reactor. even if it is for power generation only, which i think is fine, there will be that doubt as to wether they have a weapon so they won't be invaded.
Slán
~M



>Mark;
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>I can see Russia becoming the world dominant power without firing a shot. Just wait for the United States to resolve the issues with the Axis of Evil (Iran and North Korea), along with the other countries that do not see things the way our present administration does.
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>Talk about being overcommitted! We cannot stop the terrorism going on in Afghanistan or Iraq. Why not attack a few more nations to have a perfect democratic world?
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>Tom
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>>i don't think that russia will want to commit forces and neither would china, and the us and uk are too over stretched with iraq to invade so it would have to be a bombing run by someone, possibly israel again. only problem is if you don't get them all and they do have nukes... as tom says large hole where israel is but then israel would counter with the nukes that they (don't) have and so the entire region is gone. now i don't know if that is THE solution to the problems there but it is A solution. i think that the only thing that will work is UN monitors and lots of them and also sanctions for looking in the wrong direction.
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>>>In view of the current controversy over Iran's insistance on pursuing a nuclear goal, the rare, unanimous agreement of the UN founder states, even Russia and China, that it's BAD, given Iran's pariah state status of the last few decades, seeing what the Coalition did about a similar perceived case in Iraq, what do you think of the chances that there will be a few precision, surgical strikes of such facilities in the not-too-distant future?