There's another type of rumour one often sees, but not on the Internet. On the "news".

It is the rumour that some country is building...or planning to build...nuclear bombs. And that this supposedly poses a dire threat to the entire world. And that "we" may have to attack them to prevent the possibility of them someday doing to US what we apparently have carte blanche to do to others!

When you see a steady proliferation of such rumours, you may be well assured that the USA and various of its allies will presently launch a military action upon the country in question, probably a full-scale invasion...supposedly to protect OUR lives and OUR freedoms.

Such rumours are remarkable in their degree of hypocrisy. They remind me of the kind of rumours Doctor Goebbels once was fond of spreading when he was Propaganda Minister of the 3rd Reich, and their purpose is identical: to justify a war of choice by a great power upon a weaker nation, and to get the public onside to support it by scaring them.

There is virtually no way possible for the recipient of such hypocritical scare rumours and accusations to avoid being attacked once the great power has made up its mind to start the war. You cannot disprove an allegation that you have or intend to one day have a weapon of mass destruction and that you might one day use it. You can only helplessly protest the unfairness of it all while waiting for the inevitable high tech blow to fall from WMD World Imperial Central Command (which is located in Washington, London, Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, and other such western capitals.)

Your only possible way of preventing that imperial blow from falling...and it's a risky one...is to GET some nukes of your own right quick, and make it very plain that you have them and will use them if attacked. Thus you are more or less forced to do the very thing they are saying you must not...simply in order to survive.

It then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, but it appears to be the only possible way to forestall being invaded. (This was what North Korea did, and it has worked for them so far.)

Or you could just surrender to the Empire...disband all your forces...open your borders to foreign takeover of your government, industries, strategic resources, oil, etc.

Is it surprising that the target country refuses to do so? Would we refuse to surrender if placed in the same position? Yes, we would. We would prepare to fight, as best we could. And the Empire would invade us. And many people would die as the price of a cynical great game in exercising imperial power.