Butterfly Effects

[Occhidiangela]

When somebody dies, people tend to only remember the good things and never the bad things. I just think this pope was no saint.

Or as Shakespeare said, somewhat sarcastically . . .

"The evil men do lives after them, the good if oft interred with their bones."

About the weapons.  I can very well imagine that a lot of countries want to have nuclear arms. If the US and russia (and some others) have them, and there is no cold war anymore, they (and I mean countries like iran, pakistan, india, china, north korea) can very well be the next victim of the superpowers.......a few atomic bombs might be a good defense.

I mean let's not kid ourselves. If teh US knew for real that Saddam had nuclear weapons they would never have tried to invade Irak.

Eppie, a few things you are missing the point on. Nuclear bombs are not a defensive weapon, they are pure offense. Having them acts, sometimes, as a deterrent. So far. China has been a nuclear power since the mid 1960's.

"Can very well be the next victim of the superpowers."

Interesting view you have of the nation who protected your nation under its security umbrella for 50 years. :P Victim of the superpowers indeed.

As for "if Iraq had Nukes" is a specious argument. The Israelis did what they had to to prevent that in 1981. Part of the reason Pres Bush gave for going in, (the WMD reason that seems full of holes in hindsight,) is that Saddam had no scruples and would indeed be presumed to use Nuclear Weapons offensively, rather than as a deterrent.

If Iraq had had nukes? Yes, I think the war would still have happened, if he had no ICBM to deliver them with. There are a lot of ifs in your scenario and conclusion that you need to flesh out before you make such conclusions.

Occhi