Tiberius

The US is very busy in Iraq. However, Iraq would make an ideal staging ground for a very hard-hitting attack on Iran. You may even buy the support of a lot of Iraqi people who very bitterly remember the Iran-Iraq war. Afghanistan lies to the east. Another big border to Iran. Combined with Turkey that would mean Iran is in a very bad situation. The strategists in the US were either very smart or lucky. My personal opinion: The USA won't do anything. Iran is the 4th largest Producer of Oil, worldwide and Europe is its biggest customer by far and Iran is Europe's largest supplier. This puts Europe is a very difficult position. My opinion is, if Iran wants nuclear weapons, then give them nuclear weapons - send them air-mail. Takes less time to deliver than a Pizza.

Or introduce procreation licensing...? Or only people who have served in the military or worked for the country itself are made full citizens (a la Starship Troopers)?

If America is wiped out tomorrow, the rest of world, which is 95%, will continue. If Europe is wiped out tomorrow, the rest of the world, which is 92%, will continue. If the the climate changes very drastically then temperate climate zones, where food is grown, will change location and probably, for several (20) years, cease to exist in sifficient quantity to feed everyone. This will mean that probably 90% of the world will be severely affected; food shortages, water shorttages. This means 90% of the world will eventually go to war because no one wants to die like that. Nothing is more dangerous than a large group of people that think they has nothing left to loose by fighting to the bitter end. See Vietnam. Now imagine its not a small bunch of rice-farmers fighting like this but a huge (x100.000 more) bunch of people with military training and nuclear weapons. This is definitely a greater threat. Try and stop 5.5 billion armed and rampaging lunatics. You couldn't even, with all the airforce airborne, shoot down the planes fast enough without nuking your own soil to the point of inhabitability. Try and turbocharge your car when you cant buy gas becsause the oil is needed for other, more important, things (like defending yourself against said 5.5 billion people with nothing left to loose). 9/11 a huge human tragedy? Gimme a break. More people die every month in the US in road accidents that could be avoided by the drivers not being drunk. Same goes for Europe (London, Madrid, plus the 40+ years of Terrorism we endure). Same political I'm dumb all over the place - but the main thing is to get everyone all stirred up about nasty people with towels on their heads or catholics with irish accents. As much as I do not like what certain countries and ethnic groups seems to preach, we are far from perfect. We cannot even fix our own societies problems (crime, poverty to name but a few) so we seek to divert attention to other, more spectacular problems. Point: No western or industrialized country wants to do anything significant in this direction because it costs a trucload of money and gives you a significant disadvantage in world-trade because your products will become much more expensive. Europe is learning this and paying a very dear price in terms of nemployment and most likely will experience a very sharp turn to the political right in the near future because of this which endanger 25+ years co-operation.