[Dog Welder]

Originally posted by fluff
Why did the USSR spend so much (too much) money and time in an arms race? Not because they wanted to invade the US but because they were paranoid about the US (who were building more, building them faster, siting them throughout Europe, spying with better technology etc.).

I'm just answering your question...not posting an answer related in any way to this thread.

War is won not by weapons but who has the deepest pockets and the best poker face.

If I can convince a guy that I got these special little satellites with freaking laser beams attached to their heads that can shoot down nukes. Even if I have to launch a couple of million dollar paper weights shaped like satellites with freakin laser beams attached to their heads into space. The other guy is going to sit and try to see through my bluff. If my bluff works he has to spend money on nukes with anti laser force fields. Which in turn I really have to build some real satellites with stronger freakin laser beams. Thats how the west won the cold war. We spent more money than the other guy had. Simple as that. And that's how we'll be North Korea.

 

[valve bouncer]

Originally posted by Dog Welder


Thats how the west won the cold war. We spent more money than the other guy had. Simple as that. And that's how we'll be North Korea.

Yeah except dear leader is totally freakin wacko and the whole country is basically an organised crime state. Money won't do nuthin in that situation.

 

[ohio]

Originally posted by valve bouncer
Yeah except dear leader is totally freakin wacko and the whole country is basically an organised crime state. Money won't do nuthin in that situation.

Yee-up. Egomaniacs tend to call bluffs... even if they're not bluffs... even if the egomaniac knows he will lose... just to save face. See Saddam Hussein.

WE, however, won't call a bluff if it includes a nuclear weapon and an egomaniac (no I don't mean Bush, I mean Kim Jong Il).