It’s not a major issue in the domestic papers. N. Korean refugees are caught and returned to N. Korea. China has enough economic trouble in the Northeast so as not to want to support N. Korea as well. Dear Leader Kim was in China not too long ago, so there is definately communication going on between the two.
S. Korea’s own economic problems stemming from the Asian crisis have made S. Korea less important than they were. But China knows where the money flows are, and that make S. Korea much more important to China than N. Korea.
Long story short, China wants to be in control in their sphere and N. Korea is screwing things up. I mean, Beijing is within range of those same nukes…
Saddam and his forces have shown themselves to be terminally inept. I doubt they’ll get the chance to get off any appreciable ammount of WMDs, maybe a little gas, but the difference between a small number of artillery casualities & a small number of gas casualties is moot. Dead is dead, no matter how you get that way.
But North Korea has been planning an assault on the South for 50-odd years. Theyalso have WMDs.
And they are far more desperate.
Famine is rocking the throne that Kim sits on. His glassy-eyed incomprehension of our culture & system of government offers a myriad of opportunities for explosive errors, with devastating results.
Example–In a recent CNN interview, a N. Korean diplomat who defected to the South described Kim’s confusion as to why the foreign policy of the US was changing when Administrations changed. Total non-comprehension.
Kim has been descibed as a playboy & a megaomaniac. He is ignorant, xenophobic, mercurial in the extreme & seriously unbalanced. He has a much better chance of raising real Hell than Saddam. Because his SCUDs can reach the cities of Japan, as well as S. Korea.
Here’s the nuke. Israel will nuke them if they hit with bioweapons. Save us a lot of cleanup. Maybe increased terrorism due to US support of Israel, but less military work.
Oh yes, it would be great if they would just fight amongst themselves. It doesn’t matter that thousands of people would die, just so long as they aren’t us and we don’t have to clean up afterwards.
Didn’t say I endorsed it, but that’s what I think would happen. Do you think Israel would hold back their nuclear arms if they were hit with bioweapons? I don’t.
It’s understandable to feel more for people from your own country, but to pass off one country nuking another as simply saving you a lot of cleanup and making less work for you, well that’s callous. They’re not some different species to you because they don’t happen to live in America.
Here is a cite for YOU (and THIS is a first, and quite possibly a LAST, as I am usually quite “citeless”…the only reason I found THIS one is that when I googled in my simple way I came up with TEN PAGES of cites. This one happens to be from the Seattle paper, but the poll was done by…I believe…the LA Times.)
The reason I knew about this is that I heard it on the radio the other morning and thought to myself…"If 60% of REPUBLICANS don’t support a war with Iraq, Bush is REALLY in trouble. Supportwise.
Scotti - there is a gap there. Your cite says if the inspectors fail to find anything, support is lacking. There is a difference between the inspectors finding something and the UN sanctioning action. Your cite would lead one to believe if the inspectors find anything the US public would support a ground attack, even if the UN deems it minor. Only a total clean bill by the inspectors would change this.
Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, I agree with everything you’ve said, but does it really deserve that much coding?
Oh, my opinion on all this? Suddam is a crackpot dictator that we could probably take out with another bluff and attack like we did in the Gulf War without much ado, but N. Korea is a much trickier target, as they have more major cities within range of their missiles, such as Seoul, Beijing, and most likely Tokyo. And Kim, being as far off on ruling a country as he is, is more than willing to show off his nuclear arsenal. But another Vietnam? No. Not this soon. Our nation remembers it too well. The American people would not stand for another long, drawn out war. Although, Bush doesn’t seem to care what his people say too awful much.
My first thought was, “dueling polls.” But Scotti’s is three months newer. It says:
It’s pushing it a little to read that as, “…60% of REPUBLICANS don’t support a war with Iraq…”
Especially if you consider that the very next sentence says:
I love polls.
I don’t think anybody an any side of the aisle has forgotten Vietnam. If we do go in, the war will be prosecuted with an eye toward a quick victory, as opposed to the way the Southeast Asian conflict was undertaken.
A big IF remains the morale and response of the Iraqi armed forces. They seemed to fight Iran to a standstill, while all but the Revolutionary Guards seemed less than motivated during the Gulf War.
Tamerlane, thanks; the numbers I had came out of a news story from last week. Was that story’s figure of 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea anywhere near correct? And I presume we’d bump that before taking any offensive action, although I guess one big worry is that Kim might launch an attack.
Actually, ** Ringo **, I read that as the majority does not support war if nothing is found …but they EXPECT something to be found. Therefore, most support war now, but they will not if the Iraqi are exonerated, which they deem unlikely.
Hey, wasn’t the US presence in S Korea used as a reason to not support the land mine treaty, as we have them spread throughout the DMZ to keep our guys safe?
Well, I have MAJOR problem with this, in that…well, this is how it appears to me to have happened.
The UN announces to Hussein that they are going to make a “surprise” inspection. Hussein equivocates, denies access, waffles around and LATER…MUCH later, he says “Okay, come on ahead…make your SURPRISE inspection.”
Um?
That man might be CRAZY, but he certainly isn’t STUPID.
A SURPRISE inspection that several months later he ALLOWS? It appears to ME that he hid anything he didn’t want found somewhere the UN inspectors are NOT going to be able to find it. I think that most people would agree with this, it just seems to me to be common sense.
Therefore, I think it is safe to assume that the inspectors are NOT going to find anything, therefore it is NOT going to ever be a war that has the support of the rest of the world…as exemplified by the UN, for lack of any other organization including all or most countries.
But my main concern here is that WE, as a nation, cannot just decide to override the rest of the world and start a war. I mean, WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE? If EVERYONE, or at least MOST of the world feels that we are justified in starting a war, then sobeit. But AT THIS POINT, that isn’t TRUE. So any war WE start is going to BE…or at least LOOK LIKE…US Imperialistic “We know better than YOU do, so just allow us to pat you on the head and ask you to quiet down…or I AM GOING TO STOP THIS CAR AND MAKE YOU REGRET IT!!!”
I think, and this is just MHO, that the whole world is just like me…they KNOW that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. But you cannot convict someone without PROOF, and the rest of the world WANTS proof. Should the inspectors FIND proof, I believe that the UN WILL support war on Iraq. Again, just MHO.
I agree with Scotticher’s point about not finding weapons and surprise inspections, but Dubya will not let up on Iraq until we are at war. I believe that with all my heart. I have no idea why he feels like this, but I don’t see him backing off. He’s already said that he’ll act on his own if he has to.
