[lbo-talk] I don't get it...

[andie nachgeborenen]

You desperately overestimate the amount of loss that
the US is willing to have anyone inflict on Tel Aviv
or Haifa, or the amount of loss that Israel is willing
to suffer before doing something desperate. What do
you figure would be acceptable losses from the US
point of view for SH to have inflicted on Israel?
5,000 deaths? 10,000? 50,000? How long do think the
Israelis would await after a  chemical or biological
attack to do something everyone would regret -- 15
minutes, maybe? jks

--- Luke Benjamin Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
> 
> Justin wrote:
> 
> > CBW have considerable deterrence value, if not as
> much
> > as nuclear weapons.  The Bushies are not anxious
> to
> > risk losing 10,000 + troops -- or unleashing
> > weaponized anthrax on Tel Aviv. And your point
> about
> > Seoul undermines your first suggestion, that only
> > nuclear deterrents have real deterrent value,
> 
> That wasn't what I was suggesting.  Rather, I was
> arguing that the
> deterrence value of CBW is so vastly outweighed by
> the deterrence value of
> nukes (a difference of orders of magnitude) that any
> argument treating
> them as rough equivalents is unsound.
> 
> > and supports mine, taht nonnuclear weapons are
> more than
> > enough. The US would prefer _even more_ that Tel
> Aviv
> > and HAifa be left standing, and undamaged my any
> > attack that might provoke, e.g., an Isreali
> nuclear
> > response.
> 
> Everyone knew that Iraq couldn't destroy Tel Aviv or
> Haif in the sense
> that North Korea could (and can) destroy Seoul. 
> Some (including, if my
> memory serves me correctly, yourself) worried that
> Iraq might try to hit
> Israel with CBW, but I think even those of us who
> thought that Iraq had
> CBW were reasonably certain that Iraq didn't have
> missiles capable of
> effectively delivering them.
> 
> > ...and we knew that the US govt knew, that Iraq
> had no WMD. jks
> 
> Intelligence failures seem like a more likely
> culprit to me.
> 
> -- Luke
> 
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com