Brazil VP says country should build nuclear arms

AP via Breitbart ^ | 09/25/09 | Staff

[OldDeckHand]

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's vice president says his country should develop nuclear weapons.

Jose Alencar says "a nuclear weapon has great importance" to prevent attacks on Brazil because of its extensive borders and maritime holdings. Alencar tells Brazilian newspapers that Brazil doesn't have a program to develop nuclear weapons, but should.

[OldDeckHand]

Why not? Obama seems to think that everyone should get their own WMDs.

[Dallas59]

Except the US...

[vikingd00d]

>>Why not? Obama seems to think that everyone should get their own WMDs.

Everyone except America, apparently.

[edpc]

Look on the bright side. Their liquid fueled missiles would be powered with renewable, green ethanol.

[muleskinner]

The only thing worth invading Brazil for are some of the women.

[jdub]

this was inevitable once nuclear weapons were created. Eventually they would find their way into those fanatical enough to use them.

[Perdogg]

They had a secret program in 1970s. my guess is that it never stopped.

[Commander X]

But but but...Obammy just said that nation should not build nuclear weapons. Looks like Brazil just flipped Obammy the bird!

[Clemenza]

Wouldn’t lose sleep over Brazil getting nukes myself. It has a relatively advanced economy, a rapidly growing middle class, and an increasingly rational and secular population. You do have the underclass and the drug lords, but don’t think that commandeering nukes to launch at the US would be a priority.

[Clemenza]

Wouldn’t lose sleep over Brazil getting nukes myself. It has a relatively advanced economy, a rapidly growing middle class, and an increasingly (somewhat) rational and secular population. You do have the underclass and the drug lords, but don’t think that commandeering nukes to launch at the US would be a priority.

[MediaMole]

You could have said the same thing about Venezuela a few years ago.

[sand lake bar]

Looks like O’s speech at UNSC yesterday really did the trick!

[Nathan Zachary]

"Wouldn’t lose sleep over Brazil getting nukes myself. It has a relatively advanced economy, a rapidly growing middle class, and an increasingly rational and secular population."

That "increasingly "rational" and secular population are the underclass and the drug lords.

[Clemenza]

Brazil is a very strange country. On the one hand, you have a rapidly growing middle class of entrepreneurs, skilled laborers, and white collar employees, on the other you still have the 15-20% of the country that is truly poor (and poverty in Brazil is considerably worse than it is here, despite a "welfare state" and socialized medicine, btw). You also have the phenomenon of folks talking and living Right, yet voting left.

Over the past 5 years, there has been a considerable decrease in the % of poor. The problem is that the underclass (which is disproportionately dominated by an ethnicity/race that disproportionately comprises our own underclass) has inculcated values that make it neigh impossible to leave the favelas. In short, while the working poor is becoming lower middle class, the non-working poor are stuck in a rut.

[Clemenza]

Brazil is a very strange country. On the one hand, you have a rapidly growing middle class of entrepreneurs, skilled laborers, and white collar employees, on the other you still have the 15-20% of the country that is truly poor (and poverty in Brazil is considerably worse than it is here, despite a "welfare state" and socialized medicine, btw). You also have the phenomenon of folks talking and living Right, yet voting left.

Over the past 5 years, there has been a considerable decrease in the % of poor. The problem is that the underclass (which is disproportionately dominated by an ethnicity/race that disproportionately comprises our own underclass) has inculcated values that make it neigh impossible to leave the favelas. In short, while the working poor is becoming lower middle class, the non-working poor are stuck in a rut.

[Clemenza]

Brazil has a more diversified economy and less political polarization than Venezuela, which has been a petrostate (with all the associated issues) since the end of WWII. Then again, all it takes is one incompetant president to screw things up and return things to the late 1980s.

[Unam Sanctam]

Who is threatening Brazil’s sovereignty?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I say "why not?" as well.

The Brazilian women are already equipped with thermo-nuclear butts.
What difference will some thermo-nuclear arms make?

[Clemenza]

Don't think they have much to fear from the Argies, the Guayanese, or the Paraguayans (except for dope from the latter). This is all about becoming a regional power with an independent foreign policy, expanding its sphere of influence down the line. Due to a lack of cultural or historical ties with its neighbors, however, I don't see Brazil leading a "Latin American block." Its economy is large enough that such a development is irrelevant at this point. This is all about Brazil's "coming out" as an emerging power, per the current leadership.

Keep in mind that Brazil is filled with anti-nuclear peaceniks just like the US and Europe are. Be interesting to see how the larger society views this, however. Brazilians are generally patriotic, but are also anti-militaristic, even though many were just children, or weren't even born during the dictatorship.

[BubbaBasher]

Iran is building nukes and Chavez just struck a deal with them to provide gasoline. I wonder what he gets in return?