And now CNN is reporting that the missiles will be handed over to Yemen.
I’m sure we’ll all sleep sounder knowing there’s a Republican in the White House. I mean, ya can’t trust those silly Democrats to run foreign policy: they’d probably just make stuff up as they went along–the U.S. would be some kind of international laughingstock or somethin’!
The planning of 9/11 had nothing to do with who the president was. The world sees Americans as arrogant. Bush isn’t helping with all his self-righteous grandstanding and his belittling dismissals of international criticism.
From the Washington Post:
Now that we’ve got egg on our face we’re giving them back ? Can anyone explain the administration’s strategy on this ?
Here are some details.
As an American, I am personally embarassed by our current government’s squandering of the sympathetic goodwill shown to us by the world after 9/11. The hypocrisy of the U.S. deciding who can have what kind of weapons when we have every kind you could possibly imagine (and doubtless many you can’t)certainly doesn’t help.
God forbid someone should get ahold of smallpox … oh, wait, we have it, and Anthrax and every other disease known to man.
Heavens, just think if someone fanatical got ahold of nuclear weapons … oh, wait, we have thousands of them.
Well, Saddam better not be playing around with VX and other nasty nerve agents … oh, forget it.
I just hope no one ever diverts one of our shipments of Apache helicopters, Hellfire missiles, F-16s, or laser-guided bombs to Isreal or Saudi Arabia for nefarious purposes!
I love my country, but at times it’s like loving a sociopath.
Yeah, Bush won’t expose 10 million South Koreans who live in artillery range of North Korean troops to death and dismemberment. What a coward.
Sua
And how many people live within range of Iraq, Sua?
All Israelis do, minty.
So Bush likes Koreans more than Israelis, huh?
So its not a direct threat to the US then ?
minty green
A Scud is designed to carry a 100-kiloton nuclear warhead or a 2,000 pound conventional warhead, with ranges from 100 to 180 miles.
SA-7 has a range is listed as 10km, speed is about Mach 1.5, and it carries a warhead weighing 5.5 lbs
Scud = pea ???
SA-7 = bazooka ???
Other way around, obviously.
That Iraq has the capability to kill or harm? Considerably less.
But I assume that you knew that - you’re a smart guy.
So what was the point of your question, minty?
Sua
I guess we were fortunate to have adults who didn’t panic running things during the first 6 mo. of WWII when it was just one defeat after another. It could have been a shambles, like now.
Oh, I don’t know about that. Slap some of those WMD’s on the nosecones of those missiles and I think you’re looking at a hell of a lot of dead people.
That your claim of Bush’s humanity was greatly exaggerated. 10 million dead Koreans? Come on, Sua, that’s something Rumsfeld would say.
Could someone please explain to me just what you think the administration did wrong in all of this?
From what I can tell, they handled it exactly the way they were supposed to. They got some intelligence, probably from assets on the ground in North Korea, that a ship loaded with missiles was heading to an unknown destination in the middle east. Spain intercepts the ship, and the Americans send a team aboard to inspect. They find missiles.
Bush then issues a statement explaining the facts, but emphasizing that it did not like like Iraq was the destination, in order to keep everyone cool. Then Yemen owns up to owning them, and the U.S. consults international law, and accordingly releases the ship. What exactly was wrong with this? It sounds like it was handled about perfectly.
I get the impresion the US managed to piss off Spain in the process. It could be that next time the US cries wolf to Spain, Spain may just say: “Nah. Go get it yourself if you like”.
Other than that, I would say the ship was inspected at sea and let go which is quite legal and there’s nothing wrong with that.
There could be any number of reasons. Right now they are having difficulty getting tankers to come to port to pick up oil due to the Cole and Limburg incidents… Anything else that interferes with that makes it that much harder to sell the one thing that brings any money into the country. Also, because of these issues the tourist trade in Yemen is in shambles, which was another money maker for them. That alone would be a reason for them claiming the missles were coming there legitimately. Imagine the impact to the economy if it was found out the missles were going to some of the hostile tribes in the region who don’t like the government?
For some insight into the country of Yemen. It tends to be a little strident, but it gives some idea of what it is like over there and how the people think.
Yemen Times Online
Thanks for the link, Uzi!
The difference is that North Korea has China watching its back, and Iraq has nobody. Frankly, that’s a pretty huge difference.