Archive for the North Korea Category

North Korea: Still Imploding (October 9, 2006)

Posted in China, North Korea on October 9, 2006 by e-commentary.org

North Korea is explosive.  The smoke has not cleared on the recent event in North Korea.  The fallout is uncertain.  In 2002, Bush decided to threaten and provoke three countries which were doing little good but did not require taunts Iraq, Iran and North Korea.  Bush’s “Axis of Evil” tirade in the State of the Union speech in January, 2002 polarized countries that needed to be engaged.  Bush of all people should understand North Korea’s Kim Jong Il because they are similar personalities, although each lacks the ability to understand other world views.  In 2003, Bush proceeded to implement long-simmering plans to invade the wrong country and destabilize the world.  Both Iran and North Korea responded rationally to a direct threat and pursued the only promising course of action under the circumstances.  They accelerated their development of the Bomb.  [See the e-ssay dated March 27 entitled “The ‘Bush Doctrine’ In Foreign Policy.”]  The Bomb compels respect.

A country should pursue one unwavering policy toward its friends and towards its enemies talk, talk, talk.  Bush willfully alienates America’s friends and steadfastly refuses to speak to its enemies.  Bush has played the military card and undermined a military response other than one delivered incompletely by air.  Diplomatic responses may not be effective because now they can be disregarded.  North Korea does not rely on United States dollars because it simply prints them and provides counterfeit currency to the world.  If North Korea cannot obtain foreign aid and support, it will simply sell nuclear technology for cash.

China may put pressure on North Korea by withholding oil.  However, China is increasingly obtaining its oil from Iran.  Bush’s likely effete response to North Korea will embolden Iran.  Iran may put pressure on China.  And all the pundits are asserting that Iraq is not like Vietnam because it only has only two vowels in its name rather than three.

The most prudent policy may be to engage in nation building without toppling the ruling regime.  If there were some way to by pass the ruling elite and get food to the North Korean masses, the United States could buy popular support.  Any viable approach, however, requires direct dialogue and respect.  Respect for others, however, requires self-respect.

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Mutual Assured Incompetence – The Missile Defense Hoax (March 7, 2005)

Posted in Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Military, North Korea on March 7, 2005 by e-commentary.org

The star wars missile defense system is designed to fight a war that we actually won.  Beat CCCP; we did.  Former President Carter’s grain embargo and decades of internal decline doomed the former Soviet Union.  In 1989 when the [Berlin] wall came tumbling down and exposed the border and then in 1991 when the center of the “evil empire” imploded, defense policy needed to change.  The missile defense system assumes there is a threat from a source that is capable of reaching the United States with a projectile.  Any missile launched from overseas likely would land in the ocean, if it got off the ground.  Any missile sent by the U.S. in response likely would land square in the center of an American town square, if it got off the ground.  Mutual Assured Incompetence.  The savior of humanity.

The real threat is from individuals and small groups able to access a wealth of readily available material and hand deliver a weapon in a suitcase or box to the target while operating under the national security radar.  Those in power make little effort to secure that dangerous material or combat the obvious and effective delivery methods.

On February 23, our enlightened friends to the north opted out of the insanity.  Canada rejected the growing “weaponization of space.”  Rational individuals agree that Iran and North Korea should not have access to Fourth of July fireworks or water balloons.  However, these countries have been forced in part to pursue a nuclear option because the “Bush Doctrine” only respects a foreign country’s sovereignty if it is a nuclear power.  Placing complete faith in an expensive boondoggle missile defense system designed to confront an unlikely threat while completely disregarding the present and real danger is self-defeating and self-destructive.  McCain, front and center.  Duty calls.

[When the country is forced to establish a Crisis Budget (CB), this program will be abandoned.]

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