Comments on: Who’s Next?

By: ScoopThis.Org » Is Saudi Arabia buying nuclear weapons from Pakistan?

ScoopThis.Org » Is Saudi Arabia buying nuclear weapons from Pakistan? — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:43:17 +0000

[...] Tip: Vodka Pundit (No Ratings Yet)SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Is Saudi Arabia buying nuclear weapons from [...]

By: jon

jon — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:05:15 +0000

@7: The Swiss probably got/would get some Russian nukes because they were available, they were the cheapest, they were the easiest to dismantle, and to keep the Finns from getting any. Who the hell knows why, really? I was speculating out loud, still am, but still doubt that I was far from the mark while still guessing out of my ass. I honestly believe that most of the nuclear club doesn’t want to test their nukes and announce their membership because they’ve figured out the formulas and seen what works and really don’t want the attention. In some ways that’s a scary thought, while in other ways it’s like getting paranoid because many of my fellow Americans are armed in public. There’s stability and there’s sanity, and the nuts (be they nations or my fellow citizens) have proven their quality and are generally kept under watch.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:25:23 +0000

(I meant to add) Yes, Lehrer is dated, but still decidedly timely. And entertaining.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:24:19 +0000

Dang! Was hoping I’d be first to catch the Lehrer reference. Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:24:53 +0000

Great reference in the title! Doesn’t surprise me that Stephen would draw on Tom Lehrer now and then.

By: doc

doc — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:18:21 +0000

@5: Good Lord, why would Switzerland need Russian nukes? Whose engineering would you rather trust, the Russians or the Swiss? I’ve seen reports that Switzerland is non-nuclear only in the sense that it would take them 20 minutes to bolt the pieces together.

By: jaymaster

jaymaster — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:09:07 +0000

Good for the Saudis.

I just wish they aspired to American nukes instead of Paki.

By: jon

jon — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:13:38 +0000

Wanting nuclear weapons isn’t something that just suddenly happens. Anyone who can get away with it either wants them, is trying to get them, has friends who have them based nearby, can’t afford them, doesn’t feel any rush to get some, or has pretty much made a decision not to get them (the long list of nations in this final category: Japan, which has had some rethinking following North Korea’s acquisition of nukes.)

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Switzerland has some Russian nukes, Denmark has a few, or that the Burmese junta has come close to getting some. Saudi Arabia may still have as much bad blood with Iran as we do (just look up the activities of Iranians in 1979 Mecca if you want to see some tiny portion of the reason why,) but I think their desire to go nuclear may have as much to do with those nations’ desire to modernize their power grids (and keep selling as much as possible of their oil in a world where it will most likely go up in value exponentially) as it may be semi-defensive belligerence.

By: steveegg

steveegg — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:07:28 +0000

I guess the odds of the Middle East going up in a mushroom cloud by Election Day 2012 just increased. Even if Iran and Saudi Arabia manage to have their common enemy eliminated without nukes, there’s no way that luck is going to hold up in the next massive Sunni-Shi’ite war.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:59:36 +0000

Anyone could have said (and I did, years ago) that we and Israel were nowhere near being alone in not wanting Iran to have the bomb.

A Persian Gulf nuclear arms race? I blame 0bama.

By: J.T. Wenting

J.T. Wenting — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:50:10 +0000

there is another country the Saudis don’t like in the region, and that country already has nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
That country is of course Israel.
And with missiles with that kind of range the Saudis can hit pretty much the entire middle east, parts of Africa, and possibly even parts of southeastern Europe and central Asia.

By: rbj

rbj — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:40:20 +0000

Gulp.