Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 101 posts

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#21

Post by adventured »

julienfr112 wrote: post #11

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 ....

Your premise is the worst possible choice, next to the other person that suggested starting a nuclear war against the US with the material. Emailing the Iranians to come get it will get you blockaded, sanctioned and occupied by the US military if all else fails. The Iranians aren't close to being stupid enough to act on it.

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#22

Post by dsfyu404ed »

Heliosmaster wrote: post #16
LatteLazy wrote: post #12

Technically 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…

>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.

It's not wise for small nations to give big nations the bird like that when there are other options. GP's suggestion is much more tactful because nobody worth taking seriously is going to argue with the idea of selling property to the highest bidder whereas dumping stuff in the ocean is generally frowned upon by everyone.

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#23

Post by _trampeltier »

julienfr112 wrote: post #11

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 ....

I asked myself almost the same question. It should be pretty easy to get radioactive material there for a couple of dirty bombs.

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#24

Post by wrnr »

LatteLazy wrote: post #12

Technically 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…

Do you want to sit on the board of my startup I could use your advice?

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#25

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

trevyn wrote: post #7
cyberferret wrote: post #2

Why 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…

> Western countries are the benevolent benefactors is tainted by stories such as this, which shows a brutal, callous disregard for other sovereign nations. The US took control of the Marshall Islands in 1944. From Japan. After Pearl Harbor. There was no sovereign nation.

Wow, for a moment, there, i thought we could esacpe moral what-about-ism with the fig leave of legal trickery and pretend to be civilized again.

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#26

Post by thawaway1837 »

adventured wrote: post #21
julienfr112 wrote: post #11

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 ....

Your premise is the worst possible choice, next to the other person that suggested starting a nuclear war against the US with the material. Emailing the Iranians to come get it will get you blockaded, sanctioned and occupied by the US military if all else fails. The Iranians aren't close to being stupid enough to act on it.

For some reason some of these ideas on this comment section remind me of those Coke employees who stole the “secret formula” and tried to sell it to Pepsi.

Pepsi, unsurprisingly, immediately called the cops and had them arrested.

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#27

Post by julienfr112 »

adventured wrote: post #21
julienfr112 wrote: post #11

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 ....

Your premise is the worst possible choice, next to the other person that suggested starting a nuclear war against the US with the material. Emailing the Iranians to come get it will get you blockaded, sanctioned and occupied by the US military if all else fails. The Iranians aren't close to being stupid enough to act on it.

As long as you don't do anything out of the box , US won't take responsibility for their mess. Why should they ? Not their best interest to spend money at a small remote island. Calling Iran is just about making it their problem again. I think you are the type of people that don't ask for a raise because you are afraid not being seen a "team player". How nice of you !!

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#28

Post by LatteLazy »

adventured wrote: post #19
Heliosmaster wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 correc…

Well that's fine too: the US will then need to deal with it's new colony's nuclear waste legacy! "Oh no, we lost and got everything we needed!" :)

Isn't there an old film where a small island declares independence from the US, declares war on the US and then surrenders after 5 minutes to get aid?

(Edited because I think it's actually colony's not colonies)

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#29

Post by LatteLazy »

wrnr wrote: post #24
LatteLazy wrote: post #12

Technically 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…

Do you want to sit on the board of my startup I could use your advice?

:) Depends, what sort of shares are you offering and do you have at least 10 Olympic pools of plutonium-containing waste?

Re: How the U.S. betrayed the Marshall Islands, kindling the next nuclear disaster

#30

Post by keldaris »

gdy wrote: post #20
skrebbel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. May…

The only reason Russia comes out okay in your comparison is because it simply lacks the capacity to project power the way the U.S. does - there's only one global superpower, for now. If you look at areas where Russia has had an effectively free hand - like Chechnya, for instance - adjusting for scale, the resulting atrocities are worse than anything the U.S. has done since Vietnam. And in terms of internal repression, there's just no comparison at all.

The EU is simply not a credible military force. For many EU states therefore "friendship" (which really means acquiescence) to the U.S. is the only effective antidote to the geographical malady of being next to Russia.

Post reply on HN