Posted on 03/18/2002 4:19:28 PM PST by SwinusMaximus
When we run out of Arab Islamic countries might be a logical stopping place
Prophets don't hedge. Are we, or are we not? Won't do any good to be uneasy all the time, but it might be a good idea to buy another can of Spam for the fallout shelter just to ease the tension.
I'll still bet on the small mammals.
The squirrels may not make it either. I'll be more specific and choose the underground living field mice.
......let God sort them out.
I think Fred is very much on target and I thought it an excellent piece.
I'm beginning to get concerned about all this Iraq talk. And not because I don't believe fervently that Saddamn Hussein is a ferocious despot desperately needing removal from any position of power. But I've definitely noticed an increase in the Iraq rhetoric of late and there's that Cheney trip going on.
It seems like this thing is ratcheting up while my mind's still up there in those mountains being bombed in Operation Anaconda.
What *really* concerns me is a column I just read by Robert Novak. Now I quite like Mr. Novak as he strikes me, out of all the pundits with questionable credentials, as a fellow very in the know and on the inside. Politicians discuss things beside spin with him is what I'm saying here.
Anyway, Novak reports that he's spoken to, get this, a couple of REPUBLICAN senators, one of which he names and one he doesn't, and all are concerned about this increased war talk.
One senator was on the blabbity-blab government blabbity-blab oversight committee and another was on and equally blabbity-blab committee no doubt created to make the lesser congress critters feel important. At any rate, both on these committees should have, at least as I saw it, had a clue with what is going on with this war.
Instead they're talking to a reporter about their concerns? I mean, if the elected leaders don't know what's going on, and by the tone of Novak's column I discerned these guys were *not* kidding, how are *we* supposed to know?
Which worries me that we have one man...the President...who is obviously making all the decisions about this war with no consultation or advice to anyone in the legislature!
Is this one of these "sometimes you just gotta trust" moments in history? Because we have to trust someone. Either Samdamn's about to move soon or the whole Iraqi thing is a devout desire by a son wanting to vindicate his unappreciated father if you get my drift?
Ah but I've ruminated enough. This is the kind of thought brought to me by Fred's column.
The fact that Musharaff may have moved some of his Paki nukes westward towards the Afghan border is a bit nervous-making--what with all those caves and Al-Qaida characters hopping around the mountain passes.
It is extremely difficult to estimate the number and types of nuclear weapons in Pakistan's arsenal. Outside experts estimate the country has between 24 and 48 nuclear weapons. The weapons are based on an implosion design that uses a solid core of highly enriched uranium, requiring an estimated 15–20 kilograms per warhead. Seismic measurements of the tests conducted on May 28 and 30, 1998, suggest that the yields were on the order of 9–12 kilotons and 4–6 kilotons respectively, lower than Islamabad announced. Chinese tests in the 1960s used similar designs, and it is suspected that the Chinese assisted Pakistan's program in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is unclear how much weapons-grade uranium Pakistan has. For two decades, Pakistan pursued a gas centrifuge uranium-enrichment method to produce fissile material for its nuclear weapons, at what is now known as the Abdul Qadeer Khan Research Laboratories in Kahuta. By the early 1990s, some 3,000 centrifuges were thought to be operating. Although Pakistan declared a moratorium on the production of highly enriched uranium in 1991, experts think it resumed production well before the May 1998 nuclear tests. The most reliable estimate is that Pakistan has produced enough fissile material for 30–52 nuclear weapons.
Like other nations that have developed nuclear weapons, Pakistan does not seem content with a first-generation nuclear weapon and may be pursuing other designs and refinements. The 40- to 50-megawatt thermal Khushab reactor, at Joharabad in the Khushab district of Punjab, can produce weapons-grade plutonium. Loading the reactor's target materials with lithium 6 could produce tritium. Plutonium separation reportedly takes place at the "New Labs" reprocessing plant next to the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pinstech) in Rawalpindi. Through these efforts Pakistan seems to be positioning itself to increase and enhance its nuclear forces significantly in coming years.
The assembled nuclear bombs and/or bomb components for these planes may be stored in an ammunition depot near Sargodha. Alternatively, the weapons could be stored at other operational or satellite bases further to the west, near the Afghanistan border,where the F-16s would pick up their bombs.
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