Please - Say What You Think is the Greatest Threat in the World Now...

[Peter Frank]

[juliana24]

1. A war with Iran.

Thanks to * & Co.

[thefloyd]

2. Iran Iran

and Terrorism

[Glidescube]

14. Actually Iran

Iran providing nukes to terrorist groups.

Iran is not Iraq, they truly are after the nuke. But we could have done something if Shrub hadn't blown our credibility in Iraq.

[thefloyd]

15. Yeah that is the point I was trying to make

I should not have spoken caveman.

[1932]

42. The real threat that Iran raises is in the stupidity that might come to

the surface in the world's response to Iran.

[Glidescube]

46. We can let nuke proliferate even if it means going to war.

I'm no war mongeror but at the same time I'm no peacenick dreamer. Nukes have got to be stopped and if we have to go to war over this then so be it. The ones already around need to be dismantled TODAY. But we should keep only about 50 in ready to go status and under international control in the event that we made need one to divert a meteor.

[1932]

50. I think the lesson from the movie Munich is instructive.

Sometimes it's very hard to break the cycle of violence.

Nukes have proliferated. An eye for an eye can now make everyone blind because so many people have a stick to poke eyes.

It's time that we stop using only military solutions and start thinking about creating a world where nobody wants to poke anyone's eye out (and where people voluntarily put their sticks down).

Do you think a military solution in Iran is REALLY going to make the world safer, or do you thinnk it just might up the revenge ante?

[jayfish]

54. Maybe We Should Start With The Thousands...

of warheads WE have before we decide how country A or country B should be allowed to defend themselves.

Jay

[Glidescube]

56. Thats why I said the ones we have already need to be dismantled ;)

[mdmc]

113. the geni is out of the bottle - nukes are here to stay.

Why should Iran not have them? Because we are good and they are evil? We need to start thinking in terms of collective security (which is why Iran pursues weapons).

[Zhade]

122. Yeah, like the stupidity of thinking Iran is going to attack us.

Or the stupidity of believing that they have nukes...or the stupidity of believing anything out of b*s*' mouth...

[rman]

106. Except that there's no evidence of Iran trying to obtain nuclear weapons

But lack of evidence hasn't stopped the neocons before, so it probably won't stop them now.

[Army]

3. Too Easy

Teaching the Arab world that our main interest is to run their lives.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. The Shrub. eom

[Crunchy Frog]

87. The Shrub is a symptom IMO.

The disease runs much deeper and is far more pernicious than some little idiot ape.

[caledesi]

5. George W. Bush* nt

[chefgirl]

6. George W. Bush

Nothing else comes close.

-chef-

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. A Republican Administration at the helm of our nation at a time

when we'll be facing potential hardships from hurricane damage from increased weather changes; unnecesary medical complications because people can't afford their medical insurance; drafts which will take our sons and daughters away from us to fight a war to protect the oil company's revenue...

Basically, John Kerry was right. The U.S. couldn't afford four more years of George Bush.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. American neofascism

[TahitiNut]

49. Exactly. American Fascism

[Sparkman]

51. United States' neo-Fascism...the lust to rule by corporate profit motive.

The signs of Fascism are control of government by appointed SCOTUS members; anti-oversight movements in congress for the relaxation of regualatory agency authorithy; control of voting computers and the software restrictions; privitization of most of the military; W.H. planning wars to procure foreign minerals, materials & labor; sole super-power mindset in the military planning departments; descent supression by censoring corporate media and news delay for the tactical political campaign planning coersion by W.H. and congress; corporate financing of campaigns; monitoring citizens' telecommunications, library and financial records for "fatherland terrorism" security concerns; your turn.
peace

[sinkingfeeling]

52. You have my vote. The new fascism of the US of A.

[mandyky]

101. Especially since we are THE superpower

and if we ever fell, the world would have 2 former superpowers with nuclear waepons and other WMD that the crooks would sell to the highest bidder.

[Toucano]

115. Fascism is the correct answer

But it's not US fascism or American fascism.

It's global. National boundaries are just on maps for school children.

[Island Blue]

9. George W. Bush & Friends n/t

[bunkerbuster1]

Long term? Energy and water resource mis-management

Short term, it's probably the Chimp Administration and their rubber-stamping Congressional and judicial thugs.

[Crazy Dave]

10. The Wal-Martization of wages and benefits

[1932]

43. Polarization of wealth. Yes. I'm reading a book called the Great American

Jobs Scam by a guy named LeRoy.

It's about the way communties subsidize businesses to move to their communities and how it's a big scam.

He provides two examples of cities in North Carolina which BLOCKED companies from moving to their communities because they respected their union and paid good wages. The local politicians wanted to protect all the low wage businesses that had moved to their towns and they didn't want to introduce wage-inflating competition.

Sick, huh?

[laruemtt]

11. the PNAC architects. n/t

[Lochloosa]

27. My choice also

scumbags one and all.

[LunaC]

69. Absolutely! nt

[IndyOp]

12. Bush Family Evil Empire - Writ Large.

All of the First Families and the power that they wield -

UNTIL WE STOP THEM

[Maraya1969]

13. This administration's belief in superiority and their feelings of

entitlement over other countries. I think that causes much hatred toward the US and is the big reason we have been objects of attack. Iran scares me but I can't help but think that Iran would not be doing what they are doing if Clinton was in office and things had been handled with more diplomacy after 9/11 and Afghanistan.

Blowing up a country is a good way to make enemies.

I spoke with a friend last night who's travel agent told her not to go to certain countries because they hate Americans so much. THAT was not the way it was before dickhead was appointed king dickhead.

[Swamp Rat]

16. Toutatis

2012 we are toast.

[BlueEyedSon]

17. Peak Oil & Organized Religion

[1932]

41. The Miccah-inspired Millenium Campaigners might change the world

for the better.

Organized religion might become the most important coalition in the effort to save the world.

Listen to the radio program linked here:

http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=230

[BlueEyedSon]

58. Not a chance. Too "faith (as opposed to reality) - based"

The Muslims and the Christians just want to kill each other. Even the moderates.
And when they are not doing that, they are so self absorbed with their own afterlives that the condition of this world is irrelevant.



http://www.samharris.org/

[1932]

70. You didn't listen to the link, did you?

And, by the way, why would someone with a Bob Dylan-inspired screen name be so hostile to faith?

[BlueEyedSon]

71. I am hostile to ignorance and hate.... and that what *religious* faith

enables.

Just my humble opinion, but there are many historical and contemporary examples.

I bet you didn't read the book, either!

[1932]

76. But you're not going to listen to the link?

You're not going to investigate the Millenium Campaigners or the Miccah movement so that you can know whether they are really motivated by ignorance and hate?

And what historical antecedents are you basing your opinions on? MLK's faith-based fight for civil rights and against war and poverty? Gandhi's faith-based fight against imperialism and for justice? The Quaker's fight against war and slavery over the last two centuries?

What a bunch of ignorant haters, eh? Or perhaps you have to ask yourself who is the ignorant hater?

[BlueEyedSon]

78. So, people that believe fairy tales do good things and bad things.

That doesn't make the fairy tales true.

We are out of the caves now, time to stop praying to Santa for the crops to come in.

[1932]

80. The question above is about threats to society.

You believe fairy tales about faith that are making you believe that some of your greatest allies -- Gandhi, MLK, Cesar Chavez, the Quakers, and their spiritual heirs -- are your enemies.

I don't think I'm the one who needs to readjust my frame of reference.

[BlueEyedSon]

81. Are you so shallow to claim that if MLK were an

muslim
jew
pantheist
buddhist
agnostic
atheist

he would have felt/behaved any differently?

May Thor smite you!

Anyway, I'm right... so let's cease the flame-baiting. :)

[1932]

82. Are you so clueless that you don't realize that MLK's argument about

social justice was almost ENTIRELY framed by his faith?

Organized religion has been an instrument for some of the most important social progress in the history of the world as well as instrument for some very bad things.

The key isn't leaving religion to the Pat Roberts of the world. The key is to raise up the Gandhis and MLKs as and take back religion as an instrument of progress.

That's what the Micah-inspired Millennium Campaign is all about.

And I'm not going to abandon this point. Every time you say that this isn't true I'm going to remind readers that it is true (and that isn't "flaming" -- it's just a simple fact).

[BlueEyedSon]

109. Which part of your argument is "true"?

That men (eg: MLK) have been motivated to do good (as well as bad) by fiction? Agreed.

As far as works and movements being framed by faith, I say so what? That makes them neither correct nor just. The ID argument is entirely derived from Christian faith, despite its proponents claims to the contrary. But they are dangerously wrong, in both their conclusion and their "scientific" methodology. Much of the actions of the 9/11 hijackers were "framed by faith".

I'm sure there are very nice, very effective folks doing good works in the name of crystals and astrology, too.

One day the Bible stories will seem as quaint as those about Zeus, Athena and Apollo or the heroic tales of the over 2000 (!) Egyptian gods & goddesses.

Then there's the structure of organized religion in the US which is a means of voter mind control ("god, guns & gays", the funagelical voting block, etc)....

[1932]

116. "Faith" not "fiction."

And there are some incredible allegories in the bible that motivated MLK, Gandhi, the Quakers and many many others do good deeds.

I'm sure you're very proud of whatevery allegories motivate you, but whichever one it was that makes you so hostile to allegories that motivate others isn't really very helpful.

[BlueEyedSon]

123. It is primarily children that need allegories for motivation.

Ok, I do have one:

"God is Santa Claus for adults."

That gives me hope that one day humanity will grow up.

on edit: you did not clarify for me what part of your argument was "true".

[1932]

125. Then I hope you've stopped reading books, watching movies, singing songs

Again, very strange to see someone whose scrren name is a reference from a BOB DYLAN SONG to criticize the idea that narrative texts help people understand how the world works.

You've used that Bob Dylan song to frame the way you see yourself and the world, no? So why don't you give people like MLK who use the bible as a framework for seeing theh world a break?

[depakid]

102. It's pretty clearly America

As peak oil starts to raise its ugly head- and North American natural gas fall further into depletion, The United States is going to react very aggressively to secure the world's remaining resources in a vain attempt to sustain their incredibly wasteful "lifestyle" and the dying suburban infrastructure.

When it comes right down to it, a majority of Americans don't know much- nor do they give a rats ass about ANYONE else in the world (they don't even care about the welfare of their fellow citizens).

Even our closest allies (the ones we have left) need to be concerned about this. If they're smart, they're already preparing for this inevitability- and developing defenses against our carriers and stealth aircraft, because when things start to really plummet, be it 2015 or 2025- they're going to need them.

[Delphinus]

18. The cabal in Washington.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. Greed

And the idea of scarcity, which is what creates greed.

[ObaMania]

20. Shrub - hands down n/t

[bananas]

21. Dubya nt

[ThomWV]

22. One Sided Trade With China

It, not the Neocons and their bullshit, will be the death of us.

[IntravenousDemilo]

23. American exceptionalism. It's already caused so much hurt in the world.

BTW, isn't that a picture of Johann Sebastian Bachman, of Bachman Turner Ueberdrive?

[Sparkman]

53. Can I agree, with a fearless use of the F word...ascism? It's step 2.

Exceptioanalism, coupled with fortunate and timely resource infrastructure that enables the implementing and success of these fantasies of superiority, leads inevitably to FASCISM.
Did the British took on the F label in the Faulkin Island, in India, and in joining the U.S. in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns to rule another people and their wealth? Empires in decline have just failed to realize and implement the F designs. Nazi Germany, Chiles' Penoche and now George W. Bush seem to have more in common than just the suppression of democracies that were in full expression. imo

[BiggJawn]

24. Impending American Imperialism.

"The Sun never sets on th' Murkan Umpire..."

"Uh, sir? that's 'EMPIRE'?"

"Uh, yeah, thankee, Scotty..."

Brought to you courtesy of Paul, Scooter, and all the other fine bastards over at the PNAC....

[Peter Frank]

25. .

[bpilgrim]

26. Global Warming

then Peak Oil
then the neoCONs

:scared:

peace

[BlueEyedSon]

29. D'OH!

[Glidescube]

32. we wont see

The affects of Global warming on a very large scale until long after we are dead. Everyone agrees that the affects wont hit wholesale until the late 21st early 22nd. century.

Peak Oil.... I Drive A Prius and even $5.00/gallon doesn't phase me. And since the hybrids are getting very popular and SUVs are going bust we may push peak oil back a bit more.

Neocons. People are getting sick and tired of their antics and come 08 there will be some reckoning. Believe me!

[skids]

121. Think again. Once that peat moss goes we are toast.

All estimates are subject to change, and scientists have been reestimating that the effects will be on us sooner than they previously expected.

(Oh and as an aside, I have to say as far as major threats that depleted uranium article on the front page is some pretty scary shit.)

[Cobalt Violet]

28. An American Dictator

And all the distruction that brings.

[RC]

30. The United States.

[Hubert Flottz]

31. Bushism...

Bushit!

[ClintonTyree]

33. The military industrial complex......

they've taken over our country.

[Peter Frank]

36. .

[Sparkman]

55. Tom Hayden today that the War Department became D.O.D, under Ike Eisenhowe

r. Pres. Eisenhower warned us of it's strangle hold potential upon our democratic institutions, and a commitee in congress renamed the War Department. Why? Because we would constantly be asking, where's the war, as the national treasure gets channeled into OUR imperial war machine. The pesky question is pre-empted with the new title?

[LWolf]

34. I'm wavering between 2:

fascism

religious fanaticism

How to choose between them?:shrug:

[G_j]

35. the single biggest challenge facing the planet :

Climate Change

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18616

Volume 53, Number 1 · January 12, 2006

Review
The Coming Meltdown
By Bill McKibben
Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains
by Mark Bowen
Henry Holt, 463 pp., $30.00

Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hotspots
by Alanna Mitchell
University of Chicago Press, 239 pp., $25.00

The year 2005 has been the hottest year on record for the planet, hotter than 1998, 2002, 2004, and 2003. More importantly, perhaps, this has been the autumn when the planet has shown more clearly than before just what that extra heat means. Consider just a few of the findings published in the major scientific journals during the last three months:

—Arctic sea ice is melting fast. There was 20 percent less of it than normal this summer, and as Dr. Mark Serreze, one of the researchers from Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, told reporters, "the feeling is we are reaching a tipping point or threshold beyond which sea ice will not recover." That is particularly bad news because it creates a potent feedback effect: instead of blinding white ice that bounces sunlight back into space, there is now open blue water that soaks up the sun's heat, amplifying the melting process.

—In the tundra of Siberia, other researchers report that permafrost has begun to melt rapidly, and, as it does, formerly frozen methane—which, like the more prevalent carbon dioxide, acts as a heat-trapping "greenhouse gas"—is escaping into the atmosphere. In some places last winter, the methane bubbled up so steadily that puddles of standing water couldn't freeze even in the depths of the Russian winter.

—British researchers, examining almost six thousand soil borings across the UK, found another feedback effect. Warmer temperatures (growing seasons now last eleven days longer at that latitude) meant that microbial activity had increased dramatically in the soil. This, in turn, meant that much of the carbon long stored in the soil was now being released into the atmosphere. The quantities were large enough to negate all the work that Britain had done to switch away from coal to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. "All the consequences of global warming will occur more rapidly," said Guy Kirk, chief scientist on the study. "That's the scary thing. The amount of time we have got to do something about it is smaller than we thought."


<snip>
But the hurricanes also demonstrated another fact about global warming, this one having nothing to do with chemistry or physics but instead with politics, journalism, and the rituals of science. Climate change somehow seems unable to emerge on the world stage for what it really is: the single biggest challenge facing the planet, the equal in every way to the nuclear threat that transfixed us during the past half-century and a threat we haven't even begun to deal with. The coverage of Katrina's aftermath, for instance, was scathing in depicting the Bush administration's incompetence and cronyism; but the President —and his predecessors—were spared criticism for their far bigger sin of omission, the failure to do anything at all to stanch the flood of carbon that America, above all other nations, pours into the atmosphere and that is the prime cause of the great heating now underway. Though Bush has been egregious in his ignorance about climate change, the failure to do anything about it has been bipartisan; Bill Clinton and Al Gore were grandly rhetorical about the issue, but nonetheless presided over a 13 percent increase in America's carbon emissions.

..more..

=========


Darkness cannot drive out darkness..MLK Jr.

[spun_in_montana]

37. Im with you on the climate change. n/t

[WhollyHeretic]

38. Luxembourg

or maybe it's that we're destroying the world we live on. One or the other.

[blindpig]

39. Overpopulation.

Of all of our major problems overpopulation is the most intractable. While the PNACers and nuclear weapons certainly pose immediate threats these are problems which could be dealt with in short order if the will could be found. The multiple resource shortages which we face in the near future are all driven by the pressing weight of humanity. The tragic crash of biodiversity, the unknown implications of which we are only starting to consider, looks to be almost inevitable. How we deal with with this problem of too many people on a finite planet will decide if we deserve our self appointed appellation of "sapiens".

[The Stranger]

74. You are probably right.

Except that it is far too late now. It is no longer a question of reversing or even stopping the destruction of the planet, but a question of where it will lead, and what unimaginable horror comes next.

[1932]

40. Wealth polarization. It's unbalancing the globe.

[Glidescube]

44. That means the revolution is soon to follow. It's always been like that

Like a drum beat of nature, these thing have to happen from time to time. It's just that the next one is well over due. It is my belief that it was FDR's new deal that averted when the revolution should have taken place. But that was just a postponment...and time is just about up.

[1932]

47. The New Deal was the revolution. We need to get back on that path.

Just like Chile is getting back on the path it was on before Pinochet took power from a democratically elected government, the US needs to get back on the path of FDR and JFK which was taken from us in the early 70s when the right wing got very organized and wrested power from the people and gave it to private companies and very wealthy individuals.

[HeeBGBz]

45. Global environmental breakdown

I think it's gonna get bad very quickly. It no longer feels like some random event that will occur in the distant future.

[peacebuzzard]

107. My thoughts too! Unsustainable eco-system and the pinheads-in-charge

of the country .... :hi:

[H2O Man]

48. The human potential

to willingly give up free will, and the conscious effort to be unconscious.

[pointblank]

57. Glen Beck on CNN

and of course Howard Stern.

:P

[Ohio Joe]

59. Religious Extremism

Regardless of what religion or what country, the rise of religious extremism seems to me to be the root cause of many of the worlds ills. I wish I had a good idea of how to counter it because common sense does not seem to work.

60. inability to form communities

the biggest communities are probably the despicable gangs. Everyone else is single family homes. Survival of the fittest once again.

There are others of course, global warming, nuclear threats, pollution.

[Beelzebud]

61. Religious fanatics, and Bushists

[long_green]

62. Unrestrained capitalism

nm

[in_cog_ni_to]

63. SIMPLE! The IDIOT-IN-CHIEF IS THE GREATEST DANGER

to the world.

[Peter Frank]

64. .

[slackmaster]

65. USA's continued recalcitrance in adopting the Metric System

I visited Disneyland in 1966. Walt promised us that by 1980 we would all have picture phones, the 30-hour work week, and complete implementation of the Metric System.

Walt lied to us.

[watercolors]

66. This admiistration and Bush!

nt

[alfredo]

67. Overpopulation, and

Ryan Seacrest.

[spanone]

68. Evil Bush* Empire.

[mikelewis]

72. Ignorance

[oneoftheboys]

73. Religious fanatics in the Middle East.

[Greyhound]

75. The United States of Amerika. Terrorizing and plundering the planet

for over a hundred years. :patriot:

[Catchawave]

77. The Bush Administration....

Not only do I feel less safe but they have turned their Amerikka into a World Bully.

[txindy]

79. The Cabal

And their corporate partners in crime.

[hiaasenrocks]

83. Religious fanaticism of ANY origin.

Some things never change....

[Lori Price CLG]

84. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove. n/t

[No Exit]

85. WWIII. Which may start if Bush invades Iran.

[Crunchy Frog]

86. The fascist takeover of America.

The most powerful nation on Earth, with enough nukes to wipe out the human race, and with no real counterweight turning into a psychotic rogue state. This scenario is the greatest threat in the history of humanity IMO.

[rumpel]

88. * & Co.

[High Plains]

89. Bars that allow smoking n/t

[High Plains]

90. Oh, and female teachers who have sex with their students.

[PhilipShore]

91. Nukes, the military-industrial-complex, and war

[obxhead]

92. Well I post on DU, It should be obvious by now.....

[Vidar]

93. American neoconservative dominionism.

[TheBaldyMan]

94. Bush continuing to occupy the WH n/t

[JVS]

95. Freemasons

[XemaSab]

96. Communism

n/t

[NMMNG]

97. Terrorists!

:scared:

[Heidi]

98. The Bilderbergs.

:popcorn:

[anitar1]

99. Mankind n/t

[B Calm]

100. Letting known Oklahoma Right-Wing terrorists get out of jail

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

103. The situation in the Middle East.

A regional war involving Israel and various other countries in the ME killing hundreds of thousands, disrupting oil supplies and destabilizing the economy of the West.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

104. The situation in the Middle East.

A regional war involving Israel and various other countries in the ME killing hundreds of thousands, disrupting oil supplies and destabilizing the economy of the West.

[rman]

105. Bush enablers both in front and behind the scenes.

[OnionPatch]

108. Global Warming

That's number one.

After that, free-market corporatism. And of course that's what BFEE is all about, so Bush is right up there.

Terrorism is much lower on MY list. That's just my list. Others can be afraid if they like.

[dryan]

111. Global terrorism....

Osama Bin Laden has the cash and the elan to continue his own version of armageddon for years.

[rman]

126. Makes one wonder where Osama is getting the cash

At least we can rest assured there are no connections between Osama and powerful Saudis, and no connections between powerful Saudi's and powerful Americans. And certainly no connections between the CIA and Osama.

[mdmc]

110. tie - lack of compassion / Bush + PNAC

There is no threat that compassion can't cure. Bush and lack of compassion are tied as the greatest threat to mankind.

[mwb970]

112. Dick Cheney. (n/t)

[madokie]

114. Peter that was too easy, it's the bush* white house

[Ugnmoose]

117. See my thread - our greatest threat is the demise of the dollar

The war with Iran is all about sending another message to the world not to screw with converting petrodollars to Euros.

[Geek_Girl]

118. An Ignorant, uneducated, misinformed citizenry

nt

[SoCalDem]

119. Willful ignorance

[highplainsdem]

120. Global warming.

[Libby2]

124. George Walker Bush

[Geo55]

127. Peak Oil n/t

[leftofthedial]

128. global warming

the end of civilization and most probably our species within 100 years.