Anyone watching world events?

I'm following them both. Yesterday morning I remember they were reporting that something had blown up in Gaza City that the Israeli troops were not taking responsibility for, and then suddenly there was a large-scale invasion and also a large massing of troops and weaponry at the border. To me it seems Israel takes after it's supplier. Yes, they want their abducted countryman back, but killing all the civilians in Gaza isn't the right thing to do at all.

As for the war with North Korea, I was about to post a new thread about this. The press conference on tv right now with Bush and the PM of Japan is subtly saying that we are also preparing for military action against N Korea, saying that Japan is an ally and has allowed some space for American military, and that N Korea worries Japan as much as it does us. The fact that they may have a long-range nuclear weapon is of course a threat, but unless China is also joined against (and not just tolerating the way they are Iraq/Afghanistan) N Korea invading them as well will start WWIII. That is why we pulled out of the Korean War the first time, doesn't anyone remember that, or the fact that Korea collapsed shortly after we left and the war and all the deaths and millions were basically for nothing? I'm more worried about N Korea selling weapons materials to the still-working terrorist organizations that have taken over in the power vacuums we created in the Middle East.

This new policy we seem to have of just invading everyone we have a problem with is getting ridiculous. And may well cause all sorts of things that will be deeply unpleasant for Americans and everyone else on the planet. We knew about N Korea's nuclear weapons program BEFORE we invaded Iraq, but chose to invade Iraq anyway and hope that N Korea would solve itself. And now we are stretched too thin and without a draft being reinstated there's no way to fix it and be able to have any successful military action against N Korea unless we can convince China to do it. Which they won't.

At the time that Bush made up all that stuff in order to convince people that invading Iraq was a good idea, North Korea was and still is a far greater threat to American and global security. And now it is worse. And we can't do anything about it.

Also, today the Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals for the prisoners in Gitmo are in violation of the Geneva Convention. So they can't do that anymore. Good! It isn't doing anything but hurting us anyway.

I dont pay much attention to this kinda stuff just because of how scary it all is!! I think after reading you guys's posts, I will continue to not watch it.

I've been following them as much as correcting final exams, catching some World Cup matches, and checking things out here allow. All I can say is: de-jà vu. Israeli retaliation for bombings and kidnappings, North Korean nuclear tests/veiled threats, Taliban attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan coupled with pressure put on Pakistan to contain its neighbor, countries withdrawing forces from Iraq, irresponsible/irrational behavior on the part of Iranian leaders, and, and, and. The madness is endless.

I am following all the events. Although as an Asian I prefer reading this website:http://www.theepochtimes.com/index0.html since they are the only ones who care about East Asia.

I truly believe North Korea would attack China BEFORE attacking South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, or the United States (probably in that order also).

For years North Korea had been resentful of China being the #! Communist state in the world. They plan to be a bigger Communist state eventually than China. The president of North Korea is a lunatic and I am shocked China is diverting all its attention towards economic domination in South America rather than political domination in East Asia.

About the Gaza conflict, I read all the stories in regardance of the Palesterian family who got bombed at the beach. I can tell that some of the people are just wanting to make trouble and to stir up as much emotions as they could. It is a cover for the incompetence for the Hamas party.

Right now, however, I am much more worried about China buying up all the Brazilian industries more than anything else.

As much as I would love to love to watch the news, I just can't right now. I'm busy with class and work, plus watching the news just fusterates me. I keep up on CNN.com and Yahoo News

I like to read news online more than watch CNN because a lot of global news websites are less argumentative than American ones. I usually check the BBC news website once a day, sometimes I also like to read the Al-Jazeera website and other such ones to see the slant from the other direction.

Keeping up on current events in some way is your responsibility as a citizen in a Democracy. Certainly when you're busy you don't have time to watch an hour-long news program, but just checking headlines online at least once a week is a good thing to do.

What do you guys think about the NY Times scandal and the response from the White House? I think they're reacting so strongly because they don't want people to actually think about what the story revealed...

NPR and AP are much better than CNN and FOX.

I don't like the reporters in NY Times, they seem way too arrogant for my taste.

Run-up to the November elections. NWWA.

I was just fixing to start a thread about the N. Korea threat. It's frightening and the fact that they have had this missle and now they are threatening to use it. Meanwhile all our troops (or a good majority of them) are all over in Iraq. What to do?

It's frightening to think about. A nuclear attack on the pacific coast of the US. Imagine the damage that could be done or worse an EMP attack. Which would thoroughly wipe out our entire electrical grid sending us back into the dark ages (and yep, no more TCS).

I don't know what they should do, I have my husband on one side saying we should nuke them first and me going well that would start an all out nuclear war, because you know that these countries still are holding onto their nuclear firepower despite what we've been told.

I can though, almost guarantee you that there are navy ships that are on their way out to the pacific that the press doesn't know about.

The media isn't told everything with regards to the media (though it seems that way sometimes) and the media only reports what is good for them to report, what gives them ratings.

You have Iran with a nuclear program.
India/Pakistan with a nuclear weapon's system.
You know that Japan has a nuclear weapon.
We have nukes.
The soviet union/Russia has nukes still.

No one in their right minds has gotten rid of all their nuclear weapons....that's just what we've been told (not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything).

But, IMO, I think this is just the beginning of the end of the world (not to be a fatalist). But I look around and all i see is violence and threats of war.

The third world war is coming.......it's scary.

If there are navy ships off the coast, um... Does anyone study history anymore? Does anyone remember how other wars were started? Like, that we parked our ships off the coast of another SE Asian country, waited for them to shoot at us (or did they ever?), and then began the longest war in American history.

The fact that they can hit America is doubly frightening because, well, obviously it's a nuclear weapon and that's terrible. But then, all the people who are supposed to be in America to help in such situations (the National Guard) are in Iraq. And, well, nobody learned a darn thing from Katrina, and all of our important agencies have been conglomerated into Homeland Security which is behemoth, inefficient, and nearly incapable of doing what it's supposed to.

Maybe it can end like the Cuban Missile Crisis. Which was much much closer to all-out nuclear war than we're supposed to believe. Oh but, then we didn't have a warmonger for president.

I don't really think that Bush is a warmonger, but this isn't going to turn into a Bush debate, I think 9/11 happened and that we had the right to go into Afghanistan. And they did find Sarin gas in Iraq just a couple weeks ago and the media doesn't report the good that is happening over there.

If we hadn't had 9/11 then perhaps all this war stuff wouldn't be going on. And who is to truly say that another president would have made any different decisions based on the information they were given.

The situation with Korea could go either way, but I'm thinking that a nuclear fiasco could happen at any moment.

Why does Bush know that Iraq had wmd's?
Because he has the receipt.

Just lightening the mood. (When I asked if anyone studies history anymore, I wasn't talking about you. I meant the people who put the ships there, it just seems like a little bit of history repeating).

A nuclear fiasco can happen any time, any day, any where. That is the world we unfortunately live in. And I agree, more countries than anyone knows probably have the stupid things because for awhile before the USSR collapsed they weren't paying the soldiers who guarded the nukes and after a few years of their children starving they started selling them. Plus, it really isn't that hard to do if you've got the money and the understanding of science.

Exactly. I think it's more of a danger than most people realize and it scares the heck out of me. I watched that movie, oh great I can't remember it again....ohhh wait, "The Sum of all Fears" where a nuke was placed in a cigarette machine or something in Balitmore and went off nuking half of MD and DC.

Now that's scary and a real potential.

Not to freak anyone out.

I think we went into Iraq more because Saddam refused to offer us the reciept of destruction of said weapons.

Do I think we should still be in there, heck no. Being a former military member I am against the Iraqi war and I actually have a friend deployed to Balad as a respiratory tech right now who I have to get a care package ready for her.

But that's besides the point.

Current world events are scary and down right frightning, if you really think about it. Bad things are coming.

And there isn't a single thing any one of us can do about it.

"And there isn't a single thing any one of us can do about it."

Well... I refuse to believe that. Maybe it's hopeless optimism. One person can change the world. But it is always people who promote peace who do it for the better. Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, MLK, and so on all changed the world singlehandedly for the better, and all were peaceful. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc all changed the world too, for the worse, and they were all violent. I'm not saying everyone should be a pacifist (or that there's anything wrong with being in the military, thank you and thank your friend) but working towards a common goal of not killing each other would work out for the best for everyone. Part of this, to me, is not invading a country until they have attacked you or there is "clear and present danger" which we did not have in Iraq and which I do not believe we have in N Korea, yet. N Korea wants attention, and the way to get that in the world now is to threaten violence. Because otherwise the UN and America don't care what you're saying. They want to be a world power, and the way to do that is to have a nuclear weapon.

I hope the same principle as the one at work during the Cold War turns out again to hold true. As soon as you press the button, you're toast and so is your country. N Korea knows that. We know that. I'm scared too though. I think everyone is. My dad was in the Cuban Missile Crisis (and I do mean in) and the look on his face when he talks about it is scary enough for me. The fear of nuclear war sort of pervaded my household, especially in what was a top target in America and also parents who grew up in the 50s. I guess I've never not felt like a nuclear attack is imminent.

I always have to listen to Bob Dylan's "Talking World War III Blues" when I think about nuclear war. It makes it almost bearable since it's such a funny song. (Here's the lyric if you happen to be interested and don't already know the song: http://bobdylan.com/songs/ww3.html)

I saw the song title and thought about the "Talking Song Blues" by Alan Jackson. I'll look at the lyrics later when my internet is behaving.

But it could go either Bay of Pigs way or all out Nuclear Attack way. I don't know so much if N.Korea cares which way it goes...along with God knows who else has nukes....it's simply frightening.


If you think about it too much. So let's all thing of sunshine and butterflies....

Nope didn't work.

Forgive me for being a fatalist there was a time where I used to be a optimistic person, but life and times have kinda caused me to feel a bit jaded.

We did not find any biological weapons (easy to destroy, I guess).

We found many, many tons of degraded mustard gas......not exactly WMD grade, but still extremely dangerous.