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Frazzled wrote:From nukes coming over Europe. Again, it does nothing for missiles from Asia, and coming over the arctic.

The proposed plan that includes placing installations in California and Alaska disagrees.

Perhaps you should read the preliminary documentation instead of relying on news coverage. I placed the link in my last post.

Ketara wrote:

They're enormous actually, the missile defense shield under discussion alone is estimated to cost $1.5 billion dollars, maintaining troops in position to defend Germany and other European countries that should really be able to take care of themselves is not cheap, as is maintaining the huge force levels required. US military expenditures as a percent of GDP are massively higher than those of any other NATO member, and pretending that none of those expenditures have to do with NATO is a bit rich.

I would have thought 1.5 billion a big figure if I hadn't read the fact that the UK alone was bailing out the the Irish economy to the tune of 7 billion pounds. If that's in dollars, that means it's only about a billion quid. Heck, our cuts are expected to save several billion a year right now.

Therefore if that's all this shield is gonna cost, that's peanuts when talking about the security of so many allied nations. We could build it on our own, sharing the cost will make it cheap as chips.

Therefore this must be a non-issue.

I note no-one has commented on my point that this is all hugely inflated when looking at the sums involved compared to the actual value of the project. Therefore I must conclude you chaps are all having far too much fun arguing about various things to care about whether this entire issue is utterly meaningless or not.

Ketara wrote:They're enormous actually

That's what she said.

I think this is a great idea. It brings nations closer together. The UN might not get anything done anymore, but its a great concept. And Nato needs to stay. Why? It unites nations. How would humanity move forward unless we could unite against a common challenge. I remember there was a CNN report about the Iranian president blaming the US for 9/11. Mid speech, the US gets up to leave. Then Great Britain, Germany, France, Turkey, soon NATO and the US allies were gone. Why should foreign nations care what goes on inside our borders? It didnt effect them much. Its because we are all together, even if we like it or not. We have to share the same planet. I hope some day to see a world where we dont fight each other. Where you can walk from one country to another. I think the missile shield brings us closer to that.

Actually, ketara, I think it's cause we all agree with you.

Ketara wrote:
I note no-one has commented on my point that this is all hugely inflated when looking at the sums involved compared to the actual value of the project. Therefore I must conclude you chaps are all having far too much fun arguing about various things to care about whether this entire issue is utterly meaningless or not.

America does not care for rationality, let alone math.

My nation is sad one.

'Cause math and rationality make you question God, and that leads to COMMUNISM. [/joking]

ChrisWWII wrote:'Cause math and rationality make you question God, and that leads to COMMUNISM. [/joking]

No, not God, emotion. No one wants to question their feelings, because they're classical women.

Paying taxes? No, that's what women (and Texans, conflicted as they are) do!


Not!

But Totally.

I like how I'm the worlds biggest bastard for basically saying '...but it's not as simple as that, stop saying it's a simple as that!'.

Albatross wrote:I like how I'm the worlds biggest bastard for basically saying '...but it's not as simple as that, stop saying it's a simple as that!'.

We'd tell you, but its complicated...

Gah! Foiled again...