Lies, Damn Lies

conjecture

This semester I have taken a module called conjecture and proof. It sounded interesting, the sort of thing I really want to refine. I have discovered that, at least so far, it involves solving problems. All the time. With no lecturing. Which is cool in a way I guess- get to engage my brain. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my brain is all there. Meh, in my defence the first few questions have been about geometry and god I hate geometry so much. Oh well.

So this Islamic cartoon thing is getting a little out of hand now... I have heard very strong arguments for both sides, both arguing that this is endemic of a much larger problem. I'm actually not sure what's going to happen. I imagine it might have cooled down naturally, but with newspapers all over the world seemingly eager to pour fuel on the fire, who knows when it will all end. Or with what. Iran, rather cleverly, have commissioned cartoons about the holocaust. Disgusting, of course, but if we are to claim that we embrace freedom of expression, then it must be all freedom of expression. It's a big mess, and honestly I don't understand it. I think the average muslim is probably not angry about the cartoon- rather more the attitude of not having any cultural sensitivity it represents. But I could be wrong, because I'm an aetheist and not as easy to offend. I'm not completely sure what cartoon would cause me to assault an embassy.....

Speaking about Iran, while I am not happy about the idea of them acquiring nuclear weapons, can you blame them? With North Korea now practically untouchable, and us (the west) turning a blind eye as Isreal Pakistan and India all happily acquired nuclear weapons, just as much in contravention of the NPR treaty as anyone else. For that matter the UK and the US have all happily broken the treaty in the past. It's all well and good to say "well we're the good guys", if you want someone to respect an international treaty you have to actually apply it always, not when it will help you. So I'm afriad in an argument on legality we don't reaaally have a leg to stand on. After all, we've all seen what happens when a nation can't hurt us at all, and are considered an enemy- they get regime changed. With many neocons gunning for Iran, no wonder they took this step.

Again, not happy with them getting these nukes, but ultimately if they do, it will merely mean invasion is no longer viable- with their nuclear capacity (which, incidentally, won't be ready for 3-8 years even if they do go for it), they will be able to destroy a couple of cities. A horrific idea, certainly, but considering the retaliation would be the annihalation of Iran, I don't think it's going to happen. Ultimately we have failed utterly to disarm, and because we have nuclear weapons, I'm afraid that eventually our opponents might well get them too. It's unpleasent and it's scary, but, hey, we survived 50 years in "cold" conflict with a nation with enough of the things to kill everyone a few times over.

posted by Mr K @ 9:30 pm