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Originally Posted by yezhanquan
Vexx nailed the tribal/clan part. Many so-called "Islamic" rules are really tribal/clan traditions, with some even predating the arrival of Islam. Since we have little records of these tribes and clans in pre-Islamic times, it is too easy at times to just chalk everything up to "Islam".
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I do also believe it's cultural, and not much better than the witch doctors in Africa spreading around how having sex with virgins will cure you of AIDS. The traditions we speak of here only replaces "AIDS" with "family pride" and "having sex with virgins" with "killing freedom-loving women". It'll take at least one more generation for the moderate, better educated people to fully replace them, so feel free to ask this question again in 30 years, assuming the idiots in that region (I don't care which country they come from, including the US) aren't blowing up each other's civilian infrastructure.
Got bored, started replying to threads farther back in history.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vexx
The trick is to have a sufficient number but no more than that. With the new weapons, if we could get everyone down to a few hundred that would be enormous -- saving money, maintenance, potential for accidents, items vanishing, etc ...
Estimates (culled from wiki on Bulletin of Atomic Scientists):
 United States 4,075 / 5,535
 Russia (former  Soviet Union) 5,200 / 8,800
 United Kingdom 160
 France <350
 China 160-400
 India 100-140
 Pakistan ~60
 North Korea 0-10
 Israel 100-200 (based on warhead material) |
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Originally Posted by The Cardinal of the Kremlin, by Tom Clancy (when he was good at it)
Jack extended his hand toward the man, pointing his index finger like the barrel of a gun. "Let's say I have a pistol pointed at your chest right now. Call it a nine-millimeter Browning. That has a thirteen-round clip. I agree to remove seven rounds from the clip, but I still have a loaded gun, with six rounds, pointed at your chest -- do you feel any safer now?" Ryan smiled, keeping his "gun" out.
"Personally, I wouldn't. That's what we're talking about here. If both sides reduce their inventories by half, that still leaves five thousand warheads that can hit our country. Think about how big that number is. All this agreement does is to reduce the overkill. The difference between five thousand and ten thousand only affects how far the rubble flies. If we start talking about reducing the number to one thousand warheads on either side, then maybe I'll start thinking we're on to something."
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