Sunday, October 21, 2012

Obama's one on one...




No, not another POTUS debate (even though there is one left) and to be honest it may not even involve Obama, unless he wins...and unless it goes ahead: a report in the NYT says "U.S. Officials Say Iran Has Agreed to Nuclear Talks". Well agreed in principle but it will be a first...and could "[set] the stage for what could be a last-ditch diplomatic effort to avert a military strike on Iran". If the talks go ahead - I'm sure the Mullahs are against - I have no doubt that money will play a big part: Iran is hurting. Anyway, the point is the irony: news of these talks comes exactly 50 years since the last time the world has come near to actual nuclear strikes: next week is the 50th anniversary of Black Saturday, the 'eye to eye' of the Cuban Missile Crisis when 'while the risk of war was very high', however, "it was not caused by a clash of wills. The real dangers arose from 'the fog of war.' As the two superpowers geared up for a nuclear war, the chances of something going terribly wrong increased exponentially. To their credit, both Kennedy and Khrushchev understood this dynamic, which became particularly evident on the most nerve-racking day of all, 'Black Saturday.' By Saturday, Oct. 27, the two leaders were no longer in full control of their gigantic military machines..." interesting stuff; I doubt it could happen again, (could it? I really don't have faith in any of today's leaders) but as Michael Dobbs writes,


"The most important lesson [JFK] drew from it was that mistakes and misunderstandings can unleash an unpredictable chain of events, causing governments to go to war with little understanding of the consequences."

Update: LOL, Iran has denied the NYT report and it was also described as inaccurate by the US! 

2 comments:

Paul said...

Did you see that Iran TV ran the Onion 'report' on Americans wanting dinnerjacket as their next president as fact - crazy country. Their mood can't have been helped by last nights announcement that Iraq are buying American made weapons.

Span Ows said...

Yes, saw that, very funny. (that's the Onion thing AND the weapons thing!). Apparently the Iraqis were complaining about delivery times! Life is funnier than fiction has never been more true (that's funny haha AND funny peculiar)