Comments on Belmont Club"You may say that I'm a dreamer"

Reagan said “Trust but Verify” and had a much more powerful Soviet/Russian Apparatus to talk down and a much smaller China to worry about. Obama will reduce us below secure survivable second strike probability. Given the increasing complexity of our strategic challenges and given the far greater costs of conventional forces than nuclear forces for strategic impact, we should be significantly increasing all of our forces, both tactical and strategic.

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L3
Reagan proposed an elimination of ballistic missiles and denuclearization track at Reykjavik and scared the pants off of Gorbachev and the Americans. See the (always to be treated like Debka) wiki on the Reykjavik Summit.

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It may be possible to construct an effective shield against ICBMs but that does not eliminate the escaped Genie’s knowledge of how to construct nuclear weapons. The missile is one delivery system, there are others. Eventually we will have to have huge offshore inspection stations, like highway truck weighing stations, so that cargo ships can be stopped and searched for special weapons in a safe location. Even during bad economic times the shear volume of containers makes this a numbers game.

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peterike,
The Azatlan plan is to return parts of the US to Mexico rather than add them to the Union.

steveaz,
There were solid plans in the 19th century to incorporate both Cuba and the Philippines into the Union. They failed because of competing interests in the North and South and due to old fashioned bigotry. Before 1860 the South wanted Cuba as a slave state, after 1865 the South opposed Cuba as a competitor for local sugar interests. Racial and religious issues also kept both places out. While I think that Japan would make a splendid addition to the United States, so would Taiwan and Korea. One of the nice features in the old Articles of Confederation was that it specifically included an offer of statehood for Canada. Australia could probably become 5 or 6 states any time it wants to. New Zealand on the other hand might be the last redoubt for Obamanauts to retreat to when things get ugly.