posted
CNN is reporting the US is going to send 24 long-range bombers to the Pacific to counter North Korea's last provocative moves. Didn't they say this would be an act of war? With the spy plane incident on Sunday, tensions are running high...
posted
Good thing the crack diplomatic and foreign policy staff of Mr. Bush is ready and on call.
Or on crack, I can never figure out which.
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
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Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: Umm... can we stop with the pointless recriminations about whose fault the current situation is, and talk about what we're supposed to do NOW?
Read my tagline.
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Registered: Aug 2002
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I see. For twenty-years, the US supports Hussein, leaves him in power, does nothing when he murders his own citizens, and now *all* that is the fault of the international community.
Nope, not *all* of that, just the last twelve years of it.
We wanted to get him in 1991. That was the original intent, but it got talked down to merely "removing Hussein from Kuwait" due to pressure from Saudi Arabia, France, and Canada, among others, before our first troops even landed for Desert Shield. Mostly for the same reasons they are using now.
We demonstrated that we could have taken Baghdad then, but noooo, someone said that change in Iraq had to come from within (sound familiar?). So we pulled out, let it come from within... and then bowed to further internationalist pressure not to "intervene" in Iraq's "internal affairs" (sounds familiar again)by supporting that change, thusly making us look the villain.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Veers: CNN is reporting the US is going to send 24 long-range bombers to the Pacific to counter North Korea's last provocative moves. Didn't they say this would be an act of war? With the spy plane incident on Sunday, tensions are running high...
Declaring war over some bombers that are based quite a distance away (probably Guam or Okinawa) would make the NKs look overly reactionary.
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Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
It actually seems a rather good move. Either way, North Korea loses credibility.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
In a way, that actually makes sense -- and I'm wondering if that might be the Bush administration's point of view on this. We're in more of a position to negotiate with North Korea for a few reasons -- most especially because of its proximity to South Korea, Japan, and even China (who's basically on our side on this issue, though they don't want to admit it). They can take their time with NK, pushing gradually and address the issue. But with Iraq, pushing gradually has been happening for the last 12 years.
You take care of the oldest problems first, right?
(Note: I'm not endorsing any military action here -- just pointing out a possible perspective.)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:You take care of the oldest problems first, right?
You realize that the U.S. has been at war with North Korea for over fifty years, right? I don't see how Iraq can be an "older problem" than that.
Touch�.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Aren't North Korea far more likely than Iraq to launch WMD (assuming that Iraq has them, and all)? After all, the leader of North Korea is ever so slightly mental.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
But it's rather unclear whether he is in a position to control the arsenal of his country. Saddam Hussein forged his own military after a successful coup, one of his first actions being to execute over half of his former supporters for "disloyalty". Kim Jong Il inherited his from his father, and may not have much of a leverage over it.
The generals probably very well know the capabilities and limitations of their military, and won't engage in "mental" acts, not from their point of view. Nuking S�ul might not be that mental from the said point of view, though...
posted
Given the recent incident with the NK fighter jet and the US recon plane, I'm not so sure about that...
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Aren't North Korea far more likely than Iraq to launch WMD (assuming that Iraq has them, and all)? After all, the leader of North Korea is ever so slightly mental.
Liam, you miss the whole point of the Bush foreign policy.
A. You can only attack the bad / evil people you can find. That leaves Bin Laden and terror cells out and a big state with a place on the map like Iraq in. Sure you can look for terror cells, but they might be in places like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia or other places covered in B.
B. You can only attack bad / evil people you can use overwhelming force to beat quickly and without major disruption.
Saddam does not have weapons of mass distruction that can reach the major cities of important economic centers such as South Korea, Japan or the West Coast of the United States.
Mr. Bush wants a war that will not disrupt the everyday lives of the people of the United States. The war should be called the Bombs and SUV War because all the while we will be bombing Iraq and killing Iraqi citizens, Mr. Bush will be telling us to get out there and spend our dollars in the local economy. They have been doing it since we've been at "war."
This is the be a war without sacrifice, on out part at least.
Afghanistan was a perfect example of this. We didn't use American forces to do the dirty work or else some of them might have been killed and as a result, the most important bad / evil people got away. And in the aftermath, the warlords are back in charge, opium is back to being the major money crop, only Kabul is safe and Mr. Bush, not wanting to spend American dollars on nation building or ask American to sacrifice to help another country, forgets to add money for reconstruction of Afghanistan's infrastructure to next year's budget.
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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