Quote:
Originally Posted by Cdnwolf
Need I go on?
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2007
* EU Military Battlegroups. Common EU military.
Nope. No hope thereof.
* Centrist shift in US politics.
Nope, not even close.
* Tainted food recalls in US linked to China.
Nope.
* British and French elections ...
what were they smoking?
* Iraq, well ... they had to get
something right(ish)
* Afghan government pressures US to assist with law enforcement.
Again, what were they smoking?
* Pakistan - well, again, something OK.
* Australia.
Fantasy. Every. Single. Australian. PM (Labor and Liberal). Since 1941 has sucked up to the US in every way possible. The supposition here is ludicrous.
* Worldwide drought in 'rich farm countries' ... like China (ROTFL) comparing ot to the US.
Hallucinogens? We've never. ever. had a worldwide drought. Anyone with a basic knowledge of history would know that, and anyone with a basic understanding of climate science would understand why.
* Solomon Islands quake puts pressure on worldwide food resources!
Do these guys know what the population of the SI actually is?
Given that the book was published in 2008, they could at least have gotten more of the above at least vaguely resembling reality.
2009
* Iraqi politicians 'begin to find ways to make their government work for all Iraqis' ...
again, whatever it is they were smoking would have made them more money than the book did.
* Worldwide heatwave destroys crops.
Again, not the slightest understanding of science, or even where food crops are grown. As for the economics, very few of the countries likely to be affected are significant exporters and make little or no money from exporting food. Those that are and do don't rely so much on it that it would have an impact unless the ridiculously anti-scientific drought lasted for several years.
* Libya.
Yeah. Right. ROTFL.
* Darfur conflict spreads.
Again, not the slightest understanding of the local and geopolitical realities.
* EU Battlegroups (the nonexistent ones) in Central Africa roaming around.
Logistically this is simply insane - they'd be worse off than Rommel. Their base in N'Djamena ... well, Chad had no paved roads outside of the capital, no railways anywhere, no river that is more than intermittent (and, in any case, goes nowhere relevant) and their airfields are overwhelmingly dirt strips.
Oh, and in 2010 the EU sends in more nonexistent and unsuppliable BGs into Sudan and Central Africa.
I could go on. And on. And on.
Now, granted, not a lot of Americans (Australians would probably have a clew about some of the US and EU stuff, but be no better informed on the rest and UK/EU types would probably have a better handle on the Russian/Ukranian stuff, but also be clewless of most of the rest ... we
all have our national blindspots) would probably have a clew as to why many of these things are, frankly, insanely ludicrous ... but if the authors had bothered, oh, I don't know, to check Wikipedia or even the old CIA Country books on some of the places involved, they could, at least, have clewed themselves in.
It gets progressively worse and worse.
Like, oh, the Oakland Flu.
Or the
Israelis giving their nuclear arsenal (they have a hell of a lot more bombs than one, probably more than their neighbours have major cities and military targets - and, frankly, even with Tel Aviv hit by Dirty Bombs, I'd back the Israelie military against their neighbours any day of the week)
to Egypt for some desert in Libya.
Now, yes, the bits about Pakistan and the Middle East in general are, mostly, not ridiculously unlikely, but so much of the rest is that it makes the whole progression ... ROTFLMAO ridiculous.
YMMV.
Phil