I remember being taught to duck under my school desk, but I don't think that works anymore...
Posted on 02/23/2011 4:26:01 PM PST by Pan_Yan
Mideast Arms Race: If you think surprise upheavals of long-stable Islamic regimes are scary, how does a nuclearized Saudi Arabia courtesy of France grab you? The fallout from Iran's nuclear program is arriving.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced a deal with France to collaborate on the research, development and handling of nuclear materials — for peaceful purposes only, of course.
Why would the world's biggest oil exporter, the country with the most reserves on the globe, be investing in nuclear energy of all things? The Saudis' official reason is that they wish to reduce their country's consumption of oil and gas in the coming decades, good enviro-conscious players on the world stage that they are.
The truth, however, is that Saudi Arabia has been more than mildly interested in nuclear-weapons capability for a lot longer than most might realize.
In 1988, Los Angeles Times reporter Jim Mann revealed that an obscure U.S. official whose job was to keep track of airstrip construction around the world had recently "looked at a reconnaissance photo of the Saudi Arabian desert and noticed something extraordinary about a newly constructed airfield" — that the Saudis were installing Chinese CSS-2 intermediate-range missiles, which are designed to carry atom bombs.
With a range of about 1,500 miles, Saudi Arabia could use such rockets to attack Israel, India, Russia — or Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Folks, please think long and hard about this news.
The “possibility” of Iran someday having nukes just became the “probability” of nuclear weapons on the loose in the Mideast.
If any of you think these wild-eyed lunatics can keep their dirty fingers off the button, God bless you. But I don’t think so. In fact, I’m certain that we will again see mushroom clouds on the surface of the Earth ... in our lifetimes.
Dust off those old 1950’s Civil Defense manuals and start learning everything you can about nuclear weapons effects and defensive measures. As in ... RIGHT NOW!
Erroneous. The first engagement between the Coalition and Iraq occurred on Saudi soil, before the counterattack to drive Iraq from Kuwait began. The Saudis actually fired the first shots of the engagement of an Iraqi armored brigade about 20 miles into Saudi Arabia...
the infowarrior
My position was based on knowledge of Saudi’s ability to retaliate with a public acknowledgement of their nuclear arsenal. You say that Iraq had no intentions of invading Saudi Arabia but they had, in fact, positioned eleven divisions along the Kuwait-Saudi border (http://www.israeli-weapons.com/history/desert_storm/desert_storm.html). Desert Shield was an operation to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by these forces. Intelligence at the time indicated the “ruse” as you called it was real and possible. Eleven full divisions of Republican Guard and army mechanized infantry is not a defensive arrangement. So said the analyst at the time (me included).
Imagine what would have happened if Iraq were shown Saudi CSS-2s loaded with tactical nukes aimed at targets in Iraq to include Baghdad. If the Saudis had nukes, is there a possibility that the US decided it better for foreign policy purposes to use American and allied forces whether to the allow such an unbelievable truth to come out. Had analyst look at the intelligence (which was very compelling) and then rationalize it by saying the Saudis would have told us if they had obtained nukes. Foolish is as foolish does.
An interesting situation, don’t you think?
“Desert Shield was an operation to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by these forces”
Desert Shield was an operation to plausibly get a large amount of military into the theatre for Desert Storm.
Saudi nukes wouldn’t have got them out of Kuwait, which needed to happen. With Kuwaiti oil money, Saddam would still be in power now, and Iraq would be 50x the problem it ever was.
When nukes go live, it’ll be via the truck, not the missile. And the real attacker will do it via a “rogue group” proxy.
And it will be the muslims we have let into the US legally that do it.
I remember being taught to duck under my school desk, but I don't think that works anymore...
Tha Saudis have more to worry about than the kaabaa being blown to smithereens, which would shatter islam. Every one of the house of Saud have genetic markers making it easy to target the group with an engineered plague.
Leaving no Sauds alive anywhere in the world.
Not sure where you are getting your information on what the intent of the operation was. Yes, it was giving us time to move the necessary equipment into the area to remove the Iraqis from Kuwait but it had nothing to do with plausible deniability which you imply. My information comes from personal experience as I was one of the Intel Requirements Officers working in the Collection Coordination Facility in the Pentagon during the Gulf War. With eleven full armored Iraqi divisions sitting on the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, there was genuine concern of an impending invasion.
Do not discount that as one of the reasons for Desert Shield. It was the topic of concern in every meeting I attended up and down the chain.
Can anyone really say what a nuke set off in the middle of the desert would or would not do? Again, the CSS-2s were targeting Iraqi installations. Neither of us can say definitively what would or would not happen.
Don’t you read the Oil and Gas Journal and have you not followed geological news for the last 5 years?
No. Also no not really. That’s why I was curious. Are you talking about the Bakken thing in the Dakotas?
Not only in the Dakotas but also offshore Gulf of Mexico, West and East Coast. And with enhanced drilling technology developed in the last 30 years it is possible to recover more oil from wells that have been declared ‘depleted’.
All we need is the will and serious intention to develop our own oil wealth and stick with it. Just imagine what it will do to our unemployment problem, alone.
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