Alioth's Journal: WTF?

Interestingly, only 2 days after posting about "A Guide to Armageddon", this headline pops up on Slashdot:

Politics: Putin Threatens US Missile Bases In Europe

...and got tagged slownewsday

WTF? How is a thinly veiled threat of armageddon in central Europe with nuclear weapons a slownewsday article? The threat of a brand new cold war starting, and a return of back to the bad old days? I guess some people on Slashdot didn't live through the cold war. Today's obsession with terrorism has nothing on the real terror felt during the cold war every time there was some kind of incident between the USA and USSR. Sheesh.

More suitable tag..

[Baljet]

I agree that slownewsday is probably not the best, Is there an "Alarmist" or "Panic-Monger" tag? BlackwatchPlaid maybe?

History is just going on, slowly as usual

[Maljin Jolt]

While Putin's nuclear threat is targeted specifically at me and I should be scared of russians by definition, I still blame U.S. neocons for 1. using my country as kind of slave hostage to protect themselves and 2. making a direct threat to Russia, since radar which is to be placed here is usable for control nuclear attack on Russia and nothing else. It is a mere provocation.

Re:

[Cyberdyne]

I still blame U.S. neocons for ... making a direct threat to Russia, since radar which is to be placed here is usable for control nuclear attack on Russia and nothing else. It is a mere provocation.

Er, where on earth did you get the idea the missile defense was about any "nuclear attack on Russia"?! The US has had the ability to hit Russia with nuclear missiles for decades, without any need for radar - this system isn't nuclear, nor is it to "attack" anyone. If you want an example of "provocation", try lo

Re:

[Maljin Jolt]

It is quite simple by pure logic: Need of so called weak defense shield is a necessary prerequisite for planning first strike nuclear attack on Russia. Note the doctrine of preemptive wars is the current official military agenda of United States and U.S.A. are actively carrying it on. It is not my idea, but one of Donald Rumsfeld and company.

Consider this: Russia has thousands of warheads. If they strike, no U.S. defense can protect against all of them. Many cities will be destroyed. But U.S. also has thou

Re:

[Alioth]

From what I understand about this particular installation though, is that it's not even sufficient to make a noticable impact in any Sovi^H^H^H^H Russian nuclear launch. From what I understand about it, this particular missile defence is good to defend from a handful of missiles. In any case, in a pre-emptive strike, the Russians would undoubtedly still have sufficient warning to get their missiles out of their silos before being hit - and therefore, MAD still applies with this very small shield. However, a

Re:

[Cyberdyne]

Need of so called weak defense shield is a necessary prerequisite for planning first strike nuclear attack on Russia.

That's the first fatal flaw in your "pure logic": this shield isn't capable of doing anything of the sort, nor is it intended to, as Russia has repeatedly admitted already.

Now, U.S. is building a so called weak defense. That means, if U.S. strike first and destroy majority of attack warheads, a weak shield would be sufficient to cover from residual nuclear strike. This means U.S.A. can str

Hm

[turg]

Regardless of the importance of the story in general, it seems to be outside of the scope of slashdot's normal coverage.

Re:

[Alioth]

I don't really think it is - after all, geeks tend to be interested in nuclear weapons and weapon systems too. It's every bit as relevant as any other politics story on Slashdot (global warming in the main). I just can't see it as a 'slownewsday' story, and since it has over 300 posts (which is more than most Slashdot stories get), I don't think the general Slashdot community thinks that either.

Yup

[Captain Splendid]

I guess some people on Slashdot didn't live through the cold war.

Hit the nail on the head there. On a slightly related note, I think that's why there's so much disillusionment. Even with all the nukes left, all the genocide in the world, the 90's really felt there for a while like things might be getting better.

Then the millenium came sans apocalypse, and the fundies got pissed and decided to be a little more proactive....