Viewing Thread:
"North Korea to go ahead with weapon plans for nukes."

In a nutshell:

North Korea says they "are entitled to nukes".

America says "Hey slow down there sonny!"

North korea says "the money saved on scaling back its military force will help to feed its people".

America says "Lets talk".

This could be interesting....

Practical Magic wrote:
>
> Anyone notice how, as pressure mounted over the WMD dossier, we
> suddenly get bombarded by Number 10 with this Euro thing... if I've
> noticed it then surely others have also ?

Yes. I was wondering about that myself.

One could argue the same of the North Korean government, as they are trying to bully the South and Japan, as well as the UN. So far North Korea has essentially said any imposing of sanctions is an act of war, now I'd call that just as much bullying.

Possibly the whole thing was mis-timed, North Korea announced it's supposed nuclear status at the same time as the initial diplomacy leading up to the Iraq conflict. Did North Korea not expect Iraq to be attacked, and for the initial campaign to go so well as it did ? For any North Korean generals watching the conflict it must have made uncomfortable viewing - a larger force destroyed by a smaller one with better technology. North Korea's trump card, nukes, is to my mind also it's weakest. If they use them, then the country is finished, if they don't then they can never win a conventional war. The problem is do they know that ? Everyone knew that the Iraqi army could not win the war, yet still some fought on.

I agree with the other thing though, criticising the US Administration is too often branded anti-americanism, when in fact those doing the criticising just believe in a different kind of America. Which is really a whole new topic. The problem is selling a different way of thinking to electorates, that fighting a war on terror can be done in other ways than the obvious endless bombs, missiles and conflicts. Want to stop terrorism, then remove more of the reasons which allows terrorism to flourish.

The US Administrations refusal to comment on Israel's attempted assasination attempt on a (I think Hammas) leader, and the shooting of Israeli soliders at the weekend, is a total cop out once again. Nothing is said so Israel gets the message it can continue as normal, and the Palestinians once again see Israel getting away with the kinds of acts it's telling the Palestinians to stop.

Anyone notice how, as pressure mounted over the WMD dossier, we suddenly get bombarded by Number 10 with this Euro thing... if I've noticed it then surely others have also ?

Kinda shows that the current US government are...well, bullying cowards.

Have you noticed how one cannot make a comment that is critical of the US government without being accused of anti-americanism? As if it's not possible to be anything other than slavishly devoted to the land of the free, or out to destroy them? Funny really...

Yep.

As far as I can see, it's chest thumping and the USA ain't gonna say anything to anger them.

USA "You have nukes, get rid of them"
Korea "No"
USA "...er...go on"
Korea "Nope. We'll kick your ass if you dont go away"
Rumsfeld "You are bad men, possibly terrorists"
Powell "No no no, we will negotiate and talk"
Korea "We will bomb you dead"
Powell "Let's just be friends and stuff ok?"
Rumsfeld "KIll! DESTROY! HULK SMASH!"
Powell "Christ...look, let's talk nicely"
Korea "We can have nukes and you can't do diddly"
Powell "Negotiations, diplomacy and talks are the way forward"
Bush "Wha..? I'm sleepy"
Powell "Back to bed Shrubby, rock-a-bye baby...on the treetops"

I can't see why anyone would use him as an expert, it's not like, as far as I know, he's ever done anything other than write military themed books.

Having said that most 'experts' on the news don't say much more than anyone with a brain could actually figure out for themselves.

It's like this whole North Korea thing, the only people who really know what is going on are the top levels of the North Korean government and a few people within the US administration. Everyone else is making guesses and relying on third hand knowledge.

Tom Clancy?

I actually saw him interviewed on CNN as "an expert" during The Gulf sequel.
An author being asked for his opinions.
I hope we can Stephen King interviewed about SARS, after all, he wrote The Stand

Wrong, we can use ours.

Ultimately pointless, but we'd all be dead safe in the knowledge that they'd all be dead.

Still, to quote from Sum Of All Fears, "I'm not afraid of the man who has thousands of nuclear weapons, it's the ones who wants one that scare me."

If they use them we cant do anything.

But even more interesting, do they have what they say they have, and if they do why go to so many lengths to tell everyone what they have ?

In a nutshell:

North Korea says they "are entitled to nukes".

America says "Hey slow down there sonny!"

North korea says "the money saved on scaling back its military force will help to feed its people".

America says "Lets talk".

This could be interesting....