A lingering question about the first debate.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

Check me on this one.

Lehrer asked Kerry what his #1 defense priority would be if he were elected president. I was vastly comforted to hear him respond without hesitation: "nuclear proliferation." He went on to discuss what is (for me) the #1 vulnerability in the terrorism war: usecured Soviet-era nuclear materials and technology. And he described his plan for securing those stocks.

It shocked me that when Kerry was done, Bush gave exactly the same response: nuclear proliferation! The man has been president for four years and he has never given a speech on his #1 defense priority??? How many speeches has he given on Iraq? How many on nuclear proliferation (other than the false accusations against Iraq)? How many speeches have you heard him give on securing terrorism's nuclear resources in the former Soviet Union?

Question:

My read is that was an off-script, on-the spot improvisation by Bush. He heard Kerry say it, knew he was exposed, and quickly decided to mimic Kerry's response. What do you think?

[Nbadan]

My read is that was an off-script, on-the spot improvisation by Bush. He heard Kerry say it, knew he was exposed, and quickly decided to mimic Kerry's response. What do you think?

This belongs in the Politics forum. It would not surprise me if your assumption is correct about W. When Kerry outlined his plan for Iraq a few months back W made sure all of Kerrys recommendations were put into place within days.

[CosmicCowboy]

actually, there WAS a distinction.

Kerry was focusing on nations like North Korea having nuclear weapons...he did eloquently express the isue of unsecured soviet fissionable material but this is hardly something theat the US has ignored...but it is not the kind of issue that is addressed in speeches to the US people...it is handled by diplomacy with Russia and the other "new" soviet republics and by providing funds and expertise to dismantle and dispose of these weapons...the US has done that...

Bush's debate focus was more explicitly directed in keeping fissionable material out of the hands of terrorists and letting the China/Russia/US block handle North Korea diplomatically...Kerry was advocating disarmament "treaties" with North Vietnam...which Bush correctly asserted were totally unnecessary...we don't need to negotiate with Kim Jong il...China/Russia/US are the big dogs in the nuclear world and they are currently presenting a united front...NK has like 7 nukes...and I have no dought that China has told Kim Jong il that if he uses them we are all gonna turn his country into a puddle of molten glass...and I guarandamntee you that little pissant believes it when China tells him they will blow his ass away if he fucks up...I am not in the least bit worried about North Korea...

[Yonivore]

Don't forget Kerry toyed with the idea of unilateral non-proliferation with his "bunker bustin' nukes" comment.

Also a stupid idea.

[JohnnyMarzetti]

If you are not worried about North Korea you are fooling yourself.

If they feel they are going to attacked by a pre-emptive strike?

What makes you think they won't just launch away and let them land where they may?

[CosmicCowboy]

Johnny, How old are you?

Kim Jong il may be a buffoon and a joke but he is not crazy...he will strut and trash talk a little but there is no feasible scenario where we first strike unless he crosses the parrallel en mass...and like Bush subtly stated...this ain't the 1950s...NK was a China/USSR puppet then...now China/Russia/US are talking and doing business together and there is no way they will put up with a South Korean invasion and Kin Jong il knows it...if he moves south, then China moves south...except they will be fighting him and not us this time...it was the Chinese and not the North Koreans that almost kicked our ass in Korea last time...NK invaded SK and promptly got their ass kicked...unfortunately there were some overambitious generals that got headed north and didn't stop...causing China to cross the river...they almost pushed us off the damn peninsula before the US got them stopped...

[JohnnyMarzetti]

I'm old enough to know that a nuclear war will suck.

And what does age have anything do with it?

[CosmicCowboy]

Well...I actually think age may have a lot to do with it...I was in elementary school during the cuban missile crisis and remember the air raid drills and hiding under my school desk...over the years I can remember hundreds of political scenarios that could "be the one" to push us all to the nuclear mutual annihilation that was the premise of the cold war...and have time and time again seen even the most unreasonable steadfast positions suddenly become reasonable and negotiable when the clock ticked down...so yeah...I am not afraid of that little pissant...besides...I live in Texas and he hasn't got delivery capability...hehehe

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I'm not worried about NK. We've got a lot of help dealing with them. And to top it all off the big kid on the block (China) doesn't want NK acting up anymore than we do.

Step out of the Kerry box for a minute and think about it. China's on the cusp of economic world power status, we've been dangling most favored trade nation honors in front of it, etc.

All that isn't coming for free China, and it knows if it wants to run with the big dogs (US and the EU in particular) it's gotta keep the leash tight on Kim Jong Il.

Just somewhere else where Kerry has his head up his ass. We need China (and to a lesser extent Russia) involved in particular because they are in control of that part of the world when you talk geopolitics.

Kim Jong couldn't take a piss without permission from Beijing.

[CosmicCowboy]

BTW...

If you are really determined to worry about something then worry about China.

If you are really in your late teens or early twenties like your posts reflect your generation will have to deal with them in your lifetime...

and there are billions of dollars of wealth currently flowing to China as they industrialize and the US and the other developed nations consume their products at an alarming rate. This is a country with thousands of years of institutional cultural arrogance with a disciplined population being run by the military...

if you want to fear something fear that...and be very afraid....

[SpursWoman]

I don't know, CC, I'm only 32 and I remember the bomb drills. Of course, those were USSR related. :fro

[CosmicCowboy]

well...I don't know about you but I was permanently scarred by the experience...(BTW...it was the USSR that was gonna nuke us then too and not Cuba)...we even had sirens in the hall...not that I really believed it was real...Mrs. McGinnis our teacher never got under HER desk so I knew it was just a drill...so I was cracking jokes and talking across the hall...I attribute the scarring of my psyche to Stephanie Wolf (the class hottie) who sat right in front of me...when she assumed the position (we had big classes and the desks were very close) I had this glorious sight of her quivering ass with those cute white cotton panties with this mysterious camel toe thing that looked nothing like my whitey tighty jockeys...it took me years and years to get over my fetish for cotton panties....and I still prefer white lingerie over any other color...hehehe...but some of the scarring was just too much to get over...sirens still give me a hardon...

OK..gotta go watch the debates now... :lol

[SpursWoman]

well...I don't know about you but I was permanently scarred by the experience...(BTW...it was the USSR that was gonna nuke us then too and not Cuba)...we even had sirens in the hall...not that I really believed it was real...Mrs. McGinnis our teacher never got under HER desk so I knew it was just a drill...so I was cracking jokes and talking across the hall...I attribute the scarring of my psyche to Stephanie Wolf (the class hottie) who sat right in front of me...when she assumed the position (we had big classes and the desks were very close) I had this glorious sight of her quivering ass with those cute white cotton panties with this mysterious camel toe thing that looked nothing like my whitey tighty jockeys...it took me years and years to get over my fetish for cotton panties....and I still prefer white lingerie over any other color...hehehe...but some of the scarring was just too much to get over...sirens still give me a hardon...

OK..gotta go watch the debates now... :lol



:lol :lol

Between the fire drills and the bomb drills and the tornado drills....I hear the sirens and I'm ass up, face down. Like Pavlov 'n shit.

:wow

[Shelly]

:lol CC. Even then you were a perv! hee hee


If you are really determined to worry about something then worry about China.

Oh, great! My parents are going there next week.

[CosmicCowboy]

Oh, great! My parents are going there next week.

Ohhh...its plenty safe now...they want every american dollar they can get...I would love to go there and check it out now before it gets too screwed up from uncontrolled industrial expansion and pollution...

I hope your parents are going with a group or have an interpreter though...I understand from others that have gone that language is a real issue...part of that cultural arrogance thing...one of the few places in the world that it is difficult to find anyone that understands english...even in the tourist hotels..