[knak]

wonderful

[GeronL]

ordered 16 million doses from who?? The US is diluting what we can find lost in storage!!

[The Great Satan]

Nearly there, nearly there. Smallpox is a code word for "anthrax" here, IMO. Just as Blair's recent threat to attack Iraq with nuclear weapons if Saddam hits our "troops" with biological weapons was a polite way to to talk about attacks against our civilian population -- the prospect which is made explicit here. The word-games remind me of the way the Victorians talked about sex. Their purpose? It's a fine balancing act: the people must gradually be prepared for the truth, but they mustn't be paralysed with fear -- the threat must still be kept "hypothetical." That balance needs to be incrementally modulated as we get closer to the showdown with Saddam Hussein. Judging by the news stories of the last 2-3 weeks, the pace is picking up -- the final conflict with the Butcher of Baghdad may come as soon as the fall.

[Nogbad]

ping

[The Great Satan]

The Sunday Telegraph said that in the event of a war being launched against the West, Iraqi special agents would try to smuggle smallpox into Britain and release it in confined spaces such as the Tube (underground system) or cinemas.

This is a nice example of how these scenarios are subtly sanitized for public consumption. Of course, if Saddam is planning such an operation, he would have already forward-positioned his agents here -- he wouldn't wait until we are at war to send people in. Which means that the agents are living amongst us right now, just like -- dare I mention it? -- the agents who carried out 9/11. Psychologically, that is a lot harder to deal with, no? I mean, if it was unacceptable that the Soviets would station ICBMs a few minutes fly time off the coast of Florida, how should we feel about human ICBMs living bedsits in Brooklyn and Notting Hill?

[Thud]

ping

[jonathonandjennifer]

bump for later