I saw a Discovery Channel special on weapons of war yesterday. It showed that the Taep'o-dong 2 (TD-2) missile can both reach our western coast and carry a nuclear war head. When they say they will nuke us, they are bluffing to the extent that they cannot hit our capitol, but they can indeed hit Los Angelos or San FFrancisco or San Diego. In fact, the likely hood that we could actually stop them from finishing up the development of that weapon is very low. We are going to be in a position very soon, if we aren't already, in which we cannot doing anything about them. Our biggest hope is that China will step up and be the world power that they desperately want to be known as and keep North Korea in check. They are a wild card and their actions in this will not be predictable. The US may have been in a position to do more if we didn't have our forces spread out all over the world fighting people who weren't really a threat to us. I think that we can all agree that it would have been better to stay out of Iraq and have the troops to handle North Korea now. However, we do know that North Korea has neither the troops nor the means to transport troops to attach us on our soil outside of shooting a missile at us. I don't know if that works in our favor or against us.
North Korean test 'went wrong,' U.S. official says
The United States believes North Korea attempted to detonate a nuclear device but that "something went wrong," and the blast was relatively small, a U.S. government official said Tuesday. The official confirmed North Korea informed the Chinese government before the test that it would involve a four-kiloton nuclear device, a small explosion compared with the 15-kiloton nuclear tests that India and Pakistan conducted in 1998.
Ref. https://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/...test/index.html
I am picking up some things from CNN here:
1. It seems there was a 5.8 earthquake / another test this morning in North Korea, but there is no verification
2. North korea is saying that it is now ready to test a nuclear missile
3. There is something that most people are overlooking about North Korea's weapon development - it may not fire missiles itself but sell them to other that will!
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 3212 100%
I am really conflicted in my thoughts about my country. I don't have to go to my history book and hope it's right. I was here to remember when Bill Clinton gave North Korea nuclear technology with only a promise that they wouldn't use it for anything but to generate power. I saw the pictures of Margaret Allbright holding a champagne toast to seal the deal with their leader. Then when they couldn't get a rocket to track right Bill sent Loral over to get them on track. At that time I thought, "My God, what are we doing?" Now we know what we were doing.
For my money they are no different than the other terrorist of the world, but what do we do? Embargo? Blockade? We have the air power and the technology to bomb both Korea's and Iran's nuclear ambitions off the face of the earth, but what do we do? We talk? We make nice! We pussyfoot around letting things get further and further out of hand. And trust me, the world is watching.
The only small shred of hope I have is that Korea still can't make a ICBM that will track, and the "nuclear" test was, as they are saying, more fizzle than pop. We still have a little time to deal with these people. Notice I didn't say "talk." I said deal , but the only thing they understand is brute force and with the talkers in the White House brute force isn't likely.
So where do we go from here? It's anybodies guess, but it doesn't look good for our side unless George is really a magician and can pull a really big rabbit out of the hat.
International Level: Politician / Political Participation: 102 10.2%
SECOND NUCLEAR TEST FEARS ESCALATE
TOKYO: Worries that North Korea would conduct a second nuclear test kept nerves on edge as Japan, facing Chinese and Russian reservations about the scope of UN sanctions, pressed for a stern response to Pyongyang.
Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3825772a10~,00.html
North Korea's first attempt has been described as all fizz, no pop. So they're going to try again. Maybe they could call Bill Clintons buddies, or Madeline to show them again how to do it right.
But not to worry Japan. George said just this morning he was going to talk some more. I'm sorry George, but little dog eating, tin horn, dictators don't understand the word peace. Their country must starve so they can feel powerful.
Let's see, one fizzled ICBM and one fizzled nuke. One more fizzle and I won't worry much about North Korea anymore. At this point I don't think they have the brain power to pull it off.
International Level: Politician / Political Participation: 102 10.2%
There is a problem here Mouse. We really can't just start bombing them now. You realize that just bombing someone really won't solve anything, unless you really think we have the intelligence to be able to know where all their nukes are. If we miss some, and they get one, its going to be us that gets hit. When dealing with nukes and a country that may or may not have the ability to hit you with one, you can't just be the bully all the time! What your proposing is that we gave them the bomb, now we bomb them for making it. Well I guess our government should have thought about that before doing something stupid like giving another communist country the bomb. But then, we have had fourteen + years of presidents making ridiculously bad decisions in foreign policy!
We can't just go in and attack other countries because they get nukes. At least communists can be reasoned with, most muslim countries can't. We had better be very careful how we handle this situation and better watch who we threaten at this point or the outcome is going to be a war we win at a huge cost of life. Attacking someone like North Korea would almost certainly lead to an eventual nuclear confrontation. And like I pointed out earlier, who would China side with?
Me
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what do we do? We talk? We make nice! We pussyfoot around letting things get further and further out of hand. And trust me, the world is watching. |
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we have had fourteen + years of presidents making ridiculously bad decisions in foreign policy! |
International Level: Politician / Political Participation: 102 10.2%