New atomic threat

I think a lot about how to fix things.

I sometimes wonder might cure the cancer of terrorism, rather than just contain or (more likely) exacerbate it through the use of military force. Sometimes I think our policies are the cause of terrorist attacks in the Middle East; sometimes I think that any concession or change to our policies would only encourage it.

No matter what I think might fix the problem, though, I don't think the political situation in the U.S. lends itself to solutions -- like in the Cold War, there's more to be gained by keeping Americans afraid than by fixing things on a more permanent basis.

Here there's a story out about the potential for nuclear terrorist attacks. Link. The "Race against time" headline reminded me of this quote:

"We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead ... If we fail, then we have damned every man to be the slave of fear. Let us not deceive ourselves: we must elect world peace or world destruction." Bernard Baruch, Speech to UN Atomic Energy Commission, 14 August 1946 Source

True, there can be no negotiating with terrorism, but what has been done to get at its root causes? Like in the Cold War, are we so caught up with the stuggle that we are forgetting what we stand for?

On a lighter note, atomic chess can be really fun. We definitely need to keep that around.