Monday, October 09, 2006

Let's actually do something about it

U.S. Official: North Korea Tested Nuclear Weapon
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President George W. Bush agreed Monday to push for "decisive action" against North Korea at the U.N. Security Council over the communist regime's claim it had carried out a successful nuclear weapons test.

Oh good. "Decisive action" at the UN. That means that in about 2 months they will issue a "strongly worded" memo saying that a whole bunch of countries want to give the North Koreans money, energy, food, and various other forms of assistance and oh yeah, pretty please stop making nukes.

For once I'd like to see us simply state that "bombing starts in one hour."

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

every country has the right to develop any weapon it wants. where the line is when they use the weapon on themselves or others. should we give up the nukes?

Anonymous said...

That North Korean scumbitch nutjob Kim Jong Il needs to go, but that's quite difficult to do with a one-man government in power. I don't know if Kim Jong Il is sane enough to be convinced unlike President Reagan convinced the communist Soviet Union that communism doesn't work, therefore collapsing the Soviet empire and ending the Cold War without firing a single shot. Eventually an enemy nation like North Korea could collapse and become an ally like Japan, Germany, and Russia did over time. Only time will tell.

Kaelri said...

"For once I'd like to see us simply state that 'bombing starts in one hour.'"

Cool. World War III.

Anonymous said...

The North Korea situation is serious. Too bad the US lacks global credibility, has established a precedent of preemptive hostilities (seems that North Korea is following suit), and is mired in military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thus, can do little militarily.

Can we please have someone other than Bush handling this?

Anonymous said...

You can say goodbye to South Korea if we starting bombing North Korea.

Anonymous said...

The irony is that Bush funded the Kim Jong Il's nuclear program! Another great job of screwing things up!

From 2002:

"The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors.

President Bush argued that the decision was 'vital to the national security interests of the United States'. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1908571.stm

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes, another irony. Rumsfeld help sell the N. Koreans the technology!

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/05/12/342316/index.htm

Anonymous said...

Sorry, the links didn't come through:

CNN on Rumsfeld's N. Korean nukes

BBC on Bush's N. Korea Nuke funding

davidhamilton said...

As someone on Little Green Footballs said, pretty soon North Korea will receive the much-dreaded strongly-worded note!

Bryan said...

War is definately the answer to any problem the US has.

Anonymous said...

This isn't the US' problem. It's the world's. Wake up people.

Kaelri said...

Just make sure to keep things in perspective. What's the reason we don't want North Korea to have the bomb? Because they could kill innocent people with it. So we would have to kill innocent people in order to prevent the killing of innocent people. Now, if we saved more than we killed, I'd be alright with that. But as long as we have the option to kill nobody in order to save people, that's the one I'm going to support, ceteris paribus.

Anonymous said...

In North Korea, the innocent are being killed already by starvation and the freezing cold because of lack of food and heat. Take a look at the satellite image of North Korea at night. That's right, Kim Jong Il is keeping everyone in the dark, literally.

Kaelri said...

We have to choose the lesser of two evils. At this time, I am convinced that the first nuclear attack in sixty years, the destabilization of east Asia, the potential alliance of North Korea and anti-American terrorist cells, the increased strain on our economy and military and the slaughtering of millions of Koreans in a reprisal of the Korean War is, in fact, worse than dictatorial oppression. I hate both options. But I honestly do not believe that a war, even a multilateral, UN-approved police action, would end this quick and clean the way some people envision.

MAX Redline said...

You can say goodbye to South Korea if we starting bombing North Korea.

Not likely. North Korea has a population of around 22 million, of which some 20 million are estimated to be starving. Not a little hungry - starving.

That leaves the remaining wealthy 2 million to be killed, which could be easily done.

The problem is that when the epicenter of power and wealth is eliminated, 20 million people are likely to head into China and South Korea.

Of course, that's not a problem in the USA, as we've had that many flood across our southern border.

But most countries don't take such a laid-back approach to border security. With good reason.

Bryan said...

Anon 6:26

This is the world's problem. So obviously, war is the answer, right?

How about political pressure from China (which is unlikely) by condemning their nuclear program? How about the abolition of our "containment" policy (hey, the cold war is over right? A little aid could go a long way in getting pro US support among our citizens)? I could go on, but the fact of the matter is that war should be a last resort, and we haven't explored all options available to us.

Anonymous said...

Max Redline,

You don't seem to have any problem with 22 million North Koreans dying to rid North Korea of nuclear weaspons. I guess you don't have a soul but what you expect from someone who blindly follows a leader whose approval rating is a whopping 33%.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me Jackson, Anon's etc. Since none of seem to recall world history before November 2000. It was the Bill (National Security just ain't my bag baby) Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Madeline Halfbright who gave N. Korea the technology with the promise that they'd only use it for generating power. And gee the communists lied and violated the agreement before the ink was dry. Now there’s a news flash…communists lie.

But Libs find it very convenient to forget how most of this got started in the first place. I know, I know all the world problems, poverty, war, hunger, “Global warming” etc., all began in November of 2000.

Bryan said...

I find it amusing that there are some who would automatically dichotomise this as a right vs left issue. The truth is, this has been an issue with the bulk of administrations since the 1970s.

And Tim, Bush advocates the actions of the former administration.