Indeed, the US is already trying to soften up Iranian resistance by hinting at a possible use of force.

A marble statue could wave its hand at us the atoms that make up its crystalline structure are all vibrating back and forth anyway.

Israel s reluctance to rattle its nuclear saber, even in dire circumstances, adds to the mystery.

Unfortunately, inspiration, too, requires the threat of effective military power to be an effective force for change.

The most marked difference is in how boys and girls are perceived to dance. Girls are demure, mostly using a dupatta, and their dance moves are limited to hand movements and saying hips.

Alternatively, another international force may be able to accomplish more than its predecessors, which mostly waved at the terrorists as they passed.

We should think of North Korea s economic transition process as a prerequisite for full denuclearization, rather than simply holding out the promise of a big assistance package as a quid pro quo .

It made the valley of tears bearable both by offering financial and other assistance and by holding out the promise of membership and economic prosperity in the near future.

For several weeks this summer, the stadiums in Austria and Switzerland, not to mention the streets of European capitals, from Madrid to Moscow, were given to an orgy of flag waving, anthem singing, drum beating patriotism.

The tribal feelings of Germans were considered, for obvious reasons, to be particularly toxic after Hitler s Reich, which is why German flag waving, until recently, was exercised with a slight air of shame faced restraint that was entirely absent in surrounding countries.

Now, let me tell you, The James Randi Educational Foundation is waving this very big carrot, but I must say, the fact that nobody has taken us up on this offer doesn't mean that the powers don't exist.

The code of conduct that is imparted to all newly elected MPs including injunctions against speaking out of turn, shouting slogans, waving placards, and marching into the well of the house has been completely ignored.

Dangling the PDP s presidential ticket before the delta region s leading politicians is seen as Obasanjo s strategy to maintain stability and, more importantly, prevent Atiku Abubakar or General Buhari from coming to power.

Israel s reluctance to rattle its nuclear saber, even in dire circumstances, adds to the mystery. In the Yom Kippur War, as Syrian forces threatened to break the country s defensive lines, Israeli decision makers recoiled even from threatening to use nuclear weapons.

But Erdoğan s threat to consider using the Turkish navy as a military escort for further flotillas to Gaza already borders on saber rattling, as does his declared willingness to use force to prevent the Republic of Cyprus from exploring for gas in its continental shelf.

The doctrine according to which great powers, many of them nuclear armed, try to stop lesser powers from acquiring nuclear weapons by force and threats of force a fiasco in Iraq, nuclear armed North Korea, and now Iran has reached a dead end.

In a football match, the rituals the flag waving, the national anthems, the collective chants and the language that is employed (the match starts with a breakout of hostilities, one bombs the goal, blows up the defense, launches missile ) reinforce the perception of war by other means.