Rob's right about ending the Iraq war and of course it won't be ended by Obama or McCane. ON the US cooperating on AGW, Rob is just parroting more of the US line which has been fashioned to make it look like they have no responsibility for how they are polluting the planet. Sure it would hurt the US economy and an economy in wreck and ruin as we speak would most likely not be able to survive it's commitment to being a good global citizen. Those are just the facts.
I think it is unfair to argue that we have a responsibility but on the same hand enact policies that seem to say China does not have the same responsibility.
When Rob says that if the US ended the Iraq war it would be a disaster in the region he means that it would be a disaster for the US in the region. Iran is waiting patiently to step into the US's footprints and the US knows it. The Iraqis are going to cooperate to a large extent.
It would be a disaster for the US for sure, but for the entire region as well. Iran may be waiting patiently but neither Saudi Arabia or Egypt are going to let that happen seamlessly.
It could also devastate the entire region. If we pull out of Iraq before the timing is right I think the following will happen.
1) The Kurdish area will declare independence. This is unacceptable to Turkey, whose government in Ankara suppresses a huge Kurdish population domestically. I think Turkey would have no choice but to invade the new Kurdish state, unless the world came together to prevent it. With the US gone, there will be no support to go back in, and it will not be stopped.
2) Once this occurs, Iraq will have lost a major oil field in the North, and sectarian tensions will flare up again. Only this time we will not be there to keep it in check, and the ISF will fall victim to the sectarian flareups.
3) Following that, Iran will go nuclear. This will cause Egypt to quickly follow suit, and could even cause Saudi Arabia to follow suit, as they will not trust the US to maintain stability.
4) Oil speculation will go through the roof, new alternatives will be found more quickly, and many nations in the Middle East who rely only on oil, will find their economies crashing.
There are a lot of bad implications for this for everyone involved if we get our timing wrong here.
What Rob misses or purposely leaves out is the plain fact that China aspires to rise to the same standard of living as the US now enjoys. I don't think our globe could ever sustain that but I also think it's difficult to convince them that they can't be allowed.
I do not miss this. There is no doubt that China wants to achieve this. But to force the United States to abide by all kinds of treaties that China can ignore is certainly not what the United States needs to be doing at the moment.
Further adding to this problem is the fact that China continues to undervalue their currency, which flies in the face of numerous agreements they have already entered in to.
The clear solution is that the US, and Canada, and some other countries will have to back off to a sustainable level and then negotiate with China and India to only rise to that new level and not beyond.
Telling your population that their standard of living must decline so that we can protect the environment that China will then destroy while they catch up to us is not only a bad idea, but political suicide.
I would argue as well that at current levels, we can all maintain much better standards of living and it will not be unsustainable.
No matter what comes up - there you are with you Race Card.