Just send an email inviting Iran to come and get the plutonium. Before the email even left your server, US money and people from three letters agencies will start raining ....
How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
11–20 of 101 posts
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#12Technically this waste became the problem of the Marshall Islands when they became independent in 1979. That was the time to negotiate with the US about the remaining waste. This is similar to how Chernobyl is a Ukrainian issue.
That said, the islanders still have a lot of options. As a free and independent nation, they own the waste with all it's problems BUT also with all it's advantages.
Call the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Indians, the Pakistanis and anyone else with cash and ambition (ISIS, the Saudis?). Tell them you have 30 olympic sized pools worth of plutonium-containing waste and you're holding an auction for it on April 1st next year. More than enough for 1000 dirty bombs or maybe even a few high yield A-bombs if they can be bothered to refine it.
Then watch the western world beat a path to your door to talk about how much they want to take the same material for "safe keeping" and how the "global community" is "excited to help".
What was it Churchill said: "You can rely on the US (the western world) to do the right thing; once they have exhausted every other option".
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#13Technically this waste became the problem of the Marshall Islands when they became independent in 1979. That was the time to negotiate with the US about the remaining waste. This is similar to how Chernobyl is a Ukrainian issue. That said, the islanders still have a lot of options. As a free and independent nation, they own the waste with all it's problems BUT also with all it's advantages. Call the Iranians, the Nor…
we had exactly the same idea ...
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#14Is there a list of similar or bigger issues than this nuclear disaster?
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Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#15Why is it, when reading this article, all I can picture is that meme of the SS officer saying "Wait a minute... Are WE the baddies?". I am starting to interpret a lot of things I took for granted in my younger years with a different viewpoint, and I am increasingly horrified when I do, as the perceptions I've always had that most Western countries are the benevolent benefactors is tainted by stories such as this, whi…
Well when you look down the history you'll find every nation did something horrible (if they have existed long enough). US itself is quite special case in its imperialism which happened much later than the others's (Spain, Netherlands etc).
But coming back to present day, it's the actions that we do now that in my opinion matter the most. And US keeps failing on those still, time after time. European countries are in some regards better, but well we are still far away from that utopian society where all things are in perfect balance.
It's sad though that US can't take responsibility for their own nuclear waste. They spend billions on their armed forces yet fixing the aftermath of their nuclear bomb tests can't be fit into that budget? Makes no sense.
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#16Technically this waste became the problem of the Marshall Islands when they became independent in 1979. That was the time to negotiate with the US about the remaining waste. This is similar to how Chernobyl is a Ukrainian issue. That said, the islanders still have a lot of options. As a free and independent nation, they own the waste with all it's problems BUT also with all it's advantages. Call the Iranians, the Nor…
Another idea to "force" US hand is to make it their problem in other ways. Dig it up, and threaten to leave it / break it on a place where currents flow towards continental United States.
Of course this should never be done, as it is some sort of eco-terrorism, but is one of the many ways the US can have their hands forced.
Edit: in case this is not clear, I am never advocating for something like this to happen. But it is always a stupid idea to leave potentially lethal and dangerous materials on the land of a place you've scarred and destroyed and which doesn't want it at all.
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#17Why is it, when reading this article, all I can picture is that meme of the SS officer saying "Wait a minute... Are WE the baddies?". I am starting to interpret a lot of things I took for granted in my younger years with a different viewpoint, and I am increasingly horrified when I do, as the perceptions I've always had that most Western countries are the benevolent benefactors is tainted by stories such as this, whi…
Well when you look down the history you'll find every nation did something horrible (if they have existed long enough). US itself is quite special case in its imperialism which happened much later than the others's (Spain, Netherlands etc). But coming back to present day, it's the actions that we do now that in my opinion matter the most. And US keeps failing on those still, time after time. European countries are in…
I think the people in former Yugoslavia and also the Middle East would love to see the army pick up after itself. Especially the depleted uranium ammunition turns the areas it was used in into a wasteland. I remember a British researcher pulling one used round from a water-tank and brining it home. The airport in the UK went NUTS. One round... The army used 1000 tons of depleted uranium munitions in 3 weeks during the 2003 Iraq war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Ammunition
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#18This is terrifying and so sad. Here they're talking about plans to resettle the displaced local population back to the location of a nuclear bomb test: """ U.S. government documents from the time show that officials weighed the potential hazards of radiation exposure against “the current low morale of the natives” and a “risk of an onset of indolence.” Ultimately they decided to go forward with the resettlement so re…
Back in the 40s-60s, the AEC was also cool with radiation exposure testing on US troops, poor Black people, prisoners, etc.
Edit: Plus Japanese, of course. And, arguably, the entire US population.
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#19Technically this waste became the problem of the Marshall Islands when they became independent in 1979. That was the time to negotiate with the US about the remaining waste. This is similar to how Chernobyl is a Ukrainian issue. That said, the islanders still have a lot of options. As a free and independent nation, they own the waste with all it's problems BUT also with all it's advantages. Call the Iranians, the Nor…
Another idea to "force" US hand is to make it their problem in other ways. Dig it up, and threaten to leave it / break it on a place where currents flow towards continental United States. Of course this should never be done, as it is some sort of eco-terrorism, but is one of the many ways the US can have their hands forced. Edit: in case this is not clear, I am never advocating for something like this to happen. But…
> Dig it up, and threaten to leave it / break it on a place where currents flow towards continental United States.
Declaring war on the United States with a threat of intentional nuclear warfare against its population would be a particularly bad idea. That'll get your sovereignty revoked very quickly via military occupation.
The response to what I said of course is: yeah but the US is doing a bad thing. That's correct and it changes absolutely nothing about the fact that declaring nuclear war on the US, declaring the intention to try to harm its people with nuclear material, is a bad idea. Fairness is never going to exist between a superpower and weaker nations, it never has, it never will. The superpower dictates the terms in nearly all cases.
Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster
#20Why is it, when reading this article, all I can picture is that meme of the SS officer saying "Wait a minute... Are WE the baddies?". I am starting to interpret a lot of things I took for granted in my younger years with a different viewpoint, and I am increasingly horrified when I do, as the perceptions I've always had that most Western countries are the benevolent benefactors is tainted by stories such as this, whi…
It took me a long time to realize this, but now I recognize that which I think most of my fellow Europeans already know: yes, you're the baddies (I knew that already), but you're the best baddies of the baddies available. Our other options are to associate with eg China or Russia, and between those the US, even with people like Trump at the wheel, is splendid. Naturally, I think that the US should do a much bigger ef…
"Our other options are to associate with eg China or Russia, and between those the US, even with people like Trump at the wheel, is splendid."
Russia has done nothing even remotely comparable to what the US has done in Middle East: after the second Iraq war the country still hasn't recovered, Libya is a mess, Syria is a mess, ISIS was a horror.
After all that calling the US splendid compared to Russia is bizarre.
Maybe you at least should try to do what benefits the EU, not the US, or Russia, or China.