Well flight are out, drive is a fun option. I'm kind of surprised how short the journey is.
Flights from Muscat to South Asia should be doable under the current circumstances.
How easy or difficult is it to drive from Dubai to Muscat? Especially for 3rd country nationals.
And if and it's a big if, Russia really wants to give back to America for all that American hardware has done to its forces in Ukraine. They can lend Iran some stuff, especially anti shipping hardware (it's more than just missiles)
It just isn't these principalities that'll be market for new military hardware. World's pre-eminent hegemon and it's favourite rogue state would also in the market for pretty much the same stuff.
Russian wouldn't really mind some supply chain trouble with these things
bsky.app/profile/maya...
Region filled with cash rich principalities who are very quickly using their air defence hardware and would be market for replenishment with 'quote your price we'll pay' attitude.
Is something Russian would feel relieved with.
A new arena that sucks up American establishments energy, disk space, and bandwidth. Is something Russian can live with.
High oil price, and middle east oil (and gas) being off market is good for Russia.
China's leader is already a paranoid f**k + has lots of new fancy toys to play with (we all like to play with new toys and who's gonna tell him to pipe down) and brand new and mostly untested early warning system.
And also a changing nuclear employment policy coupled with a expanding arsenal.
For Russia, Putin is watching failing of his military blasted on face every day in daily briefings.
How much confidence he has left in his military's oft repeated claims that they can survive 1st strike and retaliate in kind.
And if decapitation strike is successful, who makes decisions after Putin?
My own feelings are that they going to build up solid delegative structure in place in their nuclear command chain.
And the other 2 states that point nukes at America are probably having serious discussion about when do you use before you lose it.
Most replies are 'Thank god we have nukes'
When Bahrain, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, closed off their land border and airspace to Qatar, action which DJT endorsed. Iran keeping it's airspace open to that country was critical for Qatar to fly in daily food needs before more slow moving shipments via sea came.
Well bye ✋
American and Soviet agreed to define what constitutes a test differently from how most would think (no. of test is not number of "devices" detonated) do we count Chinese test the same way?
And each and every nuclear weapons state have demonstrated, repeatedly, that their products work.
Hey people on the receiving end would never know or care if bomb was developed with best codes in the buisness.
A lot of talk about resumption of nuclear testing would erode America's lead (whatever that means) sounds like nuanced discussion in science of incinerating people.
But if nuclear testing does restart, it would in a very perverse way solve nuclear policy world's funding crisis.
However no testing by DPRK since 2017 has kind off taken the wind out of old nuclear twitter. A lot has happened to be honest.
And I'm telling a very incomplete narrative.
Absolute peak years of old nuclear twitter (where many non pro and nuclear policy people became very active) coincided with much greater tempo of testing by North Korea now under kim jong un, it's slow attainment of ICBM capabilities.
Iran was also there in the background.
Intermittent tests by North Korea under kim jong il kind of kept non pro NGOs busy, however it was Iraq war and especially it's aftermath that gave us non pro crowd that we know today.
For example India's testing 1998, just when household internet was taking off was a big moment for non pro NGOs.
Ps - I remember reading FAS South Asia history section then and honestly Tucker carlson would have been proud of it (it's gone now).
CTBT sort of took that away (without taking away the nukes)
Paul Musgrave once said that Nixon abolishing draft took the wind out of American anti war movement. CTBT did something same to non proliferation movement.
I'm not saying it's bad thing.
CTBT didn't get rid of the bomb (more countries have theme now than in 1996, and many more still want it) but it kind of pushed it into the background in mind of most people.
Nuclear testing (people forget how insanely regular it was) used to keep it nukes in front & center of people's mind.
There is a strangely symbiotic relationship between funding and prominence of nuclear policy NGOs, and nuclear testing.
I'm pretty sure their funding crisis would greatly relieved if Trump indeed goes ahead and start blowing these things (hopefully underground but you can never tell with this guy).
Everyone has beliefs, till those belief clash with your interest and cost you things.
That's the 1st thing one learns over here in this "good place".
It has been kind of amusing watching The Diplomat magazine tip toe it's way around Thai combodia clashes.
Mahathir's 100th birthday recived more coverage. Makes one wonder about editorial dynamics of the place.
Hi I'm alive, just cutting down on social media. I really do not care much about it ,especially this place.
Bluesky is repeating all of the old twitter things (except giving us option of turning off repost for individual accounts)
Over at old place people let us know how much they didn't care about blue checkmark of official endorsement by tweeting about it continuously for weeks when they were taken away
Verification should be simple case of your name and your face are what you claim to be, as long as we stick with this verifying someone should be routine and unremarkable.
When one starts to hand out verification to notable account, this whole process is essentially act of endorsement.
