No, I don’t wear tin foil hats but has anyone considered an Iraqi-North Korea nexus?
Since Bush lit a match under his Iraq war fire, North Korea started warming up as well. It appears whenever the Bush Saddam tit-for-tat game goes another round, North Korea ups their own ante against the USA.
Oh sure, perhaps just to stay in the western media because conditions in North Korea may be deteriorating faster now.
Perhaps it’s sheer coincidence.
So what is it to consider an Iraq-North Korea chatter over the back fence, exchanging information, North Korea sending war materiel to the Middle East (those Scuds stopped on the way to Yemen?)? Is it worthy of a debate to consider North Korea is playing the foil with an upcoming USA-Iraqi war to thin out US forces? After all, today’s news indicates a potential sixth, and even seventh carrier battlegroup are being considered being posted to the Middle East. With only 12 carrier battle groups in our entire fleet, and at least two-three out of action (for maintenance and retrofit) at any one time, wouldn’t this play well into an Iraqi-North Korea nexus?
The Bush Administration downplays North Korea, but contines to match them tit-fot-tat. Rumsfeld’s loud comments alerting long range bombers come to mind here. Surely he could order the same quietly, but he chose not to do that. Today, Bush accuses Saddam of order his commandrs to use chemical weapons if attacked. Regardless if the statements is true r not, but the escalations on both fronts continue.
Coordinated orchestrations and Bush falls for it?
Sure, sure I’m bordering on shadows in the night and cough conspiracies here, but what they hey! It seems reasonable for two of Bush’s Axis of Evil partners to live up to their reputations!
Well, we know there’s a connection between N. Korea and Yemen, but they are currently on the Good Guy list. For the moment, at least. Due to the forward thinking democratic progressiveness of the Yemeni regime, as it were.
N.Korea is just posturing. They have done it before, and they will continue to do it. It’s nothing new. I feel like the gwb admin will most likely make some type of consession to NK to get them appeased, then when Iraq is neutralized by what ever means turn to NK and solve things as diplomatically as possible.
Wishful thinking? Doubt it because no one wants to see retribution for a nuclear attact starting from NK.
This I don’t understand. NK is a China client state more or less. It seems very simple. The US states that it expects sponsor states to answer for the actions of their clients. Unless China has a deep and abiding desire to be screwed over by NK they can reign them in. What an I missing?
After that ‘Axis of evil’ speech and the build up of troops on Iraq’s borders, I wouldn’t be surprised if Iraq, Iran and NK had been in contact with eachother.
I would be very surprised if they hadn’t put their heads together.
Latro maybe you can tell me what you think would happen if NK Iraq and Iran put their heads together? And when did Iran and Iraq become buddy buddy again?
Though I agree there is a reason Bush is building up forces for an attack on Iraq other than to carry out a vendeta for his dad. I do not think NK poses a serious enough threat to retreat from Iraq and move on to NK…
Well they are diverting attention to some degree. I agree that it probably won’t be enough to call off an attack on Iraq.
Don’t know if Iraq and Iran are really buddy buddy.
But put yourself in their shoes, imagine you are Saddam.
From the start of the build-up, it was pretty clear that this was for real, no stopping this one. This is it !! It has finally arrived ‘The mother of all battles.’
You would go looking for allies, wouldn’t you? Who else then the other two threatened parties.
(You would, btw, not fall into the trap of getting rid of any chemical weapons. You would rather step up the production.)
You can bet your sweet ass there is a lot of thinking and preparation going on on how to hit back as hard as possible, any way possible.
Maybe Iran is not playing, maybe they are.
If they are playing, all three of them, here is what I would do:
Wait (and hope) for a classical amphibian invasion from the Gulf.
Let them advance a bit.
Hit the fleet with anything and everything you can throw at it. This is where Iran joins in.
Drive a pincer from Iran, through Basra, to or into Kuwait. Or as far as you can get.
At the same time North Korea invades South Korea.
Hope for enough casualties on the American side that they will loose heart and vie for a truce.
I am not saying this is a very likely scenario. We have three very isolationist nations here, two of which have no love lost over each other.
There will, however, at the very least, have been some form of contact between the parties concerned. Whether something concrete and/or workable has come out of this is something else.
Besides, when the going gets tough, the tough start playing dirty.
If my nice little ploy does indeed work and U.S. forces are between a rock and a hard place, a nuclear strike would not be unthinkable.
Don’t know if the parties concerned realise that.
But can NK really do anything? If they attack they loose, regardless of when. The US and SK forces would recover and push back massively. When they win and the Koreas are united, China winds up with a capitalistic country with stronger ties to the US sitting on its door step. I think that potential right there neatly ties both their hands and those of the North Koreans. China would not let a NK attack begin.
Yes this has kept the balance reasonably well.
But now Mr Bush is poking them with a stick. The threat that they are going to be next is real to them.
They are being backed into a corner. Right now they are baring their teeth and hissing. If Bush doesn’t back off and keeps poking, they might run (if left an escape) or they just might go for the face.
Well you have to love this North Korean dudes, specially when they answer with dubyas words. Just great. Violation of international law wasn’t that smart, was it Bush?*
Latro, I had the same nightmare the other night. After all premptive strikes can go both ways. If I were a North Korean mad dictator the moment the first american lands in Irak is the moment I turn Seoul into an obstacle track.
What about Iran? in the last few years their current leadership has done a lot to separate state from religion, all that went to the trash with the “axis of evil” speech. If there is an invasion to Irak, Iran will have a powerfull military unfriendly force in it’s doors. I would strike before they are finished with Irak but then again my surname is not Von Clausewitz
I have a feeling that NK is simply taking advantage of the momentary distraction to annoy the US so it can get a few things it wants. Thats all. Odds of us actually dealing/removing Iran and NK are near zilch, so they arent in as much dire straights as Iraq who can feel its bum under a burner.
Just how is the U.S. ‘poking them with a stick’? Every escalation in this particular episode has started with North Korea. The position of the U.S. has been to claim emphatically that they have NO interest in attacking North Korea, and other than that they are not willing to negotiate until North Korea stops being belligerant.
Yet an NBC Nightly News report tonight said US and SK military forces would be overwhelmed in just a few hours. South Korea would be overrun long before the US could mount a counter-offensive (shades of the Korean War?), and by that time, the escalation would probably move to nuclear strikes.
Well it’s not like 40,000 US troops suddenly materialized next door without warning. And let’s face it; the whole “Axis of Evil” refers to specific regimes that seriously threaten stability in their respective regions. Or are we getting all offended that we actually called them dangerous?
NK will do nothing, it actually answers to China. While they may manage to pull off shipping weapons out using weapons on the peninsula against the Koreans is completely different.
As for Iran, their leadership is caught between what the younger generation want (more say) and the older power brokers want (continues theocracy). And if you check you maps Afghanistan is right next door with large numbers of US forces traipsing about. I have yet to hear the massive cries of Iranian armies rushing to meet them.
So they overrun the south. Then what? How exactly will they hold it? Who exactly will be willing to provide material support and men and in the Korean war?
South Korea is a completely different world from the North. Noisy workers protests, elections, educated population that hasn’t been beaten or starved into submission. I’m thinking taking is different from holding.
And why would the US escalate anyway? Once NK takes the majority of the peninsula they then have to patrol it and avoid invasion from the sea. The US would have no obligation to defend what was lost and can go straight for Pyong Yang. Why fight back UP to the north when you can fight down to eth south? China would have no cause to interfere with the Americans? Would they?
I think you’re missing the fact that while China has influence with N. Korea, N. Korea is hardly a vassel state. Nor does China control what is going on in N. Korea. Again, influence but not control. Think about it, Beijing is within range of N. Korean nukes as well.
Another point is that China does not necessisarily care if N. Korea becomes capitalist. China to a very large degree is capitalist these days and the proportion of the economy that is open market continues to grow at a very high pace. The state owned enterprises IIRC are now less than 20% of the economy.
