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NonU NonU
I guess non dircect non exisitant non negotations achieve non results.
NonU NonU
I knew it was a lot but I overstated it by quite a bit. Thanks for researching it velik.
[QUOTE]Not sure if I'm reading the sarcasm correctly Manny but N. Korea would love to make it look as if their Nuclear and Missle Program is basically a problem between them and the U.S. Obviously that's not the case, it's a problem between N. Korea and the rest of the Free World, hence no direct negotiations with just our Country and thiers.
yeah I guess firing missles aimed at hitting close to hawaii isn't a big deal .. it doesn't take much for a retaliation should that missle go off course and actually hit hawaii.. it's stupid on the N. Koreans to even think of hitting anywhere near a US state...
Well we have the most knowledgeable Professor from UTSA and his slant on things.
As usual. It is Our Fault. I wonder sometimes why he wants to stay in such a
rotten country, as ours. We have so many here now like him. Really strange.
Mansour El-Kikhia: Did U.S. get N. Korea's message?
Web Posted: 07/07/2006 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
Pyongyang test-fired seven missiles this week. Some failed, others succeeded, but all landed harmlessly in the Sea of Japan.
The consequences of the Korean experiment, however, were not as harmless. Global news outlets devoted large chunks of air time to the issue; oil prices shot to a new high of $75; and docile Japan, visibly shaken, lodged a formal complaint against Pyongyang at the United Nations.
The Bush administration was also surprised by North Korea's brazen action, given that President Bush spent last week telling the North Korean leadership that he considered test-firing any long-range ballistic missile a serious provocation.
It seems the threats and warnings to North Korea's leaders fell on deaf ears. They decided to defy the Bush administration and tested their equipment on the Fourth of July.
Why did the North Koreans resort to the kind of brinksmanship that could develop into a dangerous crisis for the peninsula, the region and the world? The answer is not simple, and it involves intangibles that the U.S. government precipitated.
First, insecurity seems to be at the core of the Pyongyang-Washington relationship. The U.S. government, for some reason, seems to think it can maintain 60,000-plus troops in the demilitarized zone confronting the North Koreans and simultaneously warn them not to build weapons for self-defense.
The Bush administration foolishly ensured North Korea's distrust of the United States when it pontificated on arms elimination and simultaneously placed the Asian country on its "axis of evil" list. Why would any country placed on such a list of a military superpower feel secure?
Second, North Korea's leadership has watched and learned. If Iraq had possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration would have thought twice about invading the Middle Eastern country. It is making sure that it is not caught in the same position.
Third, Pyongyang is sending a very important message to the Bush administration. Indeed, it is sending two messages.
The first informed the United States that it has the hardware. The second is more important. The launch date — the Fourth of July — was chosen to get the administration's attention.
It got Bush's attention, telling him that North Korea's willingness to use whatever power it has is real, unaffected by threats or intimidation. This is important, because in one swoop, North Korea used the three elements of deterrence. It demonstrated weapon possession, it showed willingness to use that power, and it communicated that to its opponents.
Fourth, the United States is offering Iran nuclear reactors and incentives to stop enriching weapon-grade uranium, yet refuses to do the same for North Korea. By testing these missiles, Pyongyang is telling the United States, Japan and South Korea that they have a bigger problem than Iran and they should start making better offers.
North Korea is in a much worse political, economic and cultural state than Iran. It is on the verge of starvation and collapse. And were it not for the humanitarian support it received from the United States and South Korea, it would have experienced wide starvation.
There is no doubt its leaders will continue to use missile technology as a bargaining chip to finagle more Western concessions and aid or as a source of hard currency by selling it to Third World countries seeking delivery systems. Libya has already been talking to North Korea about military cooperation.
So what should Bush do? He should stop making mountains out of molehills, understand the process of politics, not threaten unless he is willing to follow through on the threats and, finally, practice what he preaches. Don't ask other countries to sign and abide by international agreements when he did neither.
The North Korean regime is insignificant and its actions have doomed it to the dustbin of history. It is only a matter of time, and the U.S. government will be well-served not to delay that by foolish actions.
[email protected]
Online at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/...ur.938b09.html
One more little note: Notice, what he said about the nukes. Is he trying to make
a case for Iran here? They have to have nukes to stop us from invading? We
want invade if they have nukes?
Then he tells Bush to ignore N. Korea, that he is making mountains out of molehills.
Of course the good professor has so many facts wrong in his piece. 60 thousand
troops IN the demilitarized zone. Wrong. Wonder if he knows the meaning of the
word "demilitarized"?
We also gave N. Korea nuclear technology for power. And he abused it.
Oh, well. You get the drift.
forgive me if I'm wrong.....
All of those missles were duds but could have easily "accidentily" landed in Japan.
Most of them are aimed at Japan.
as far as i remeber being told, after WWII wasn't Japan limited to spending less than 2% on national defense? And are we not inturn obligated to defend them should the need arise?
^^Yes you are quite correct, we are obligated to provide Japan with protection. It
is part of our agreement with them to keep them from raising a large standing, offensive,
military.
So then shouldn;t we all be pretty much pissed at North Korea for firing missles near a country that we are bound to protect and thereby potentially drawing us into another conflict that we don't have the $$ for and alot of people dying?
i mean, thats pretty ty.
i don't understand why some would be "ehhhhh" on this subject.
Someone tell the socialist at UTSA that there are only 37,000 US troops in the RoK, not "60,000-plus", and we have been drawing them down steadily in recent years. Plans are on the books to reduce that number to 25,000 by 2008.
Well, you got to understand he doesn't understand what "demilitarized" means
either. But he knows how to fix everything. He is an over educated idiot and
the darling of the academic elite.
kill those es them
A japanese newspaper reported that one of the missles was aimed at Hawaii.
For those of you who are in favor of invading NK, how would you propose to do it?
Or do you think the US should just nuke North Korea?
Would the US have to invoke a draft if war breaks out in the Korean peninsula?
Should the Japanese be allowed to mobilize an army to help fight North Korea?
I have asked myself these questions and none are easy to answer. I've lost one family member in Iraq and losing anymore scares the out of me. Because another Korean war will be bloody as .
It's rare for Jack Kelly to put out a subpar column and he doesn't disappoint with this one.
N. Korea's missile madness
NORTH Korea manufactured a crisis when, on what was the Fourth of July in these parts, Kim Jong Il's regime test fired seven missiles, one of them the Taepodong 2, which (in theory at least) could reach the West Coast of the United States.
Just about everybody wants a diplomatic solution. The difficulty in finding one is that in addition to being vicious and untrustworthy, the leadership in North Korea may be certifiably insane, as this report indicates:
"Food and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on," reported StrategyPage Wednesday.
"In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea ignores Chinese demands that the trains be returned, and insists the trains are part of the aid program."
How does one negotiate with a regime that does stuff like this? Not successfully, as the Clinton administration found out.
On Oct. 21, 1994, the Clinton administration signed a deal (the Agreed Framework) under which the United States supplied food and fuel oil to North Korea, and helped it construct two nuclear electric power generating stations, in exchange for North Korea's promise to stop its nuclear weapons program. North Korea took the aid, and (apparently) built its bomb anyway.
I say apparently because even though North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons, it's never tested one, and the results of the missile tests July 4 give some reason to doubt the efficacy of North Korean technology.
Six of the missiles were short- range Scud Cs or medium-range Nodongs. The long range Taepodong 2 failed within 40 seconds of flight.
Slate's military writer, Fred Kaplan, described the tests as a "catastrophe" for North Korea. "If you're going to defy all your enemies and allies, you'd better come away from the gamble with added strength and leverage," he wrote. "Kim Jong Il emerges from the Taepodong disaster with his chips spent and a pair of deuces on the table."
The Heritage Foundation's Peter Brookes, a former CIA officer, agrees: "This provocation will turn out to be a complete loser for Pyongyang," he said.
The Web logger "Spook 86," a retired Air Force intelligence officer, isn't so sure. The tests demonstrated North Korea has mastered intermediate-range ballistic missile technology, he said, worrisome because North Korea is estimated to have nearly 700 of these missiles.
Conducting all the tests within a four-hour window shows North Korea has the capability to barrage its missiles, said Jon Wolfstahl, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Sales of the Nodong to other outlaw regimes have been a major source of hard currency for North Korea. Tuesday's tests won't discourage them, though buyers won't be lining up anytime soon for the Taepodong 2.
North Korea did get what it wants most. Mr. Kim is in some ways like a petulant child who misbehaves in order to get his parents' attention.
Mr. Kim has never been punished for outlandish behavior. On the contrary, he has usually - as in 1994 - been rewarded for it. He may be insane, but he's not stupid. He'll continue to do what works for him, until it no longer does.
Stupid is, however, a fair description for those in the West who respond to each new outrage from North Korea with the attention Mr. Kim craves, and fresh offers of aid in exchange for promises he has no intention of keeping.
The United States currently is engaged in six-party talks with North Korea (the others are China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea), the purpose of which is to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for massive aid.
The miniscule hopes for a satisfactory diplomatic solution rest with China, without whose support North Korea would collapse. China has so far refused to take a hard line with North Korea, both because China enjoys the headaches North Korea makes for the United States, and because it fears a flood of refugees if Mr. Kim's regime collapses.
Mr. Kim has stuck a finger in China's eye by conducting the missile tests despite their protests, and by seizing the aid trains. Perhaps this will convince the Chinese to put down the carrot and pick up the stick.
If not, our best course of action is to pay as little public attention to North Korea as possible, while building up missile defenses as rapidly as practical. If left alone, the regime eventually will collapse. But it would be better if China gave it a push.
Jack Kelly is national security writer for The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll...368/-1/OPINION
Bush creates Axis of Evil: Iraq, Iran, NK
Bush topples Iraqi regime. Iran and NK rush to build nukes. No one with a brain is surprised. They were ing next.
How so?
You say that as if they were sitting there twiddling their thumbs and only started their programs in March 2003.
You're an idiot.
Through the media.
Both programs were in a quiescent stage, due to dimplomatic efforts of previous administrations. Shortly after that date, NK kicks out inspectors, breaks the seals on the reactors, and goes to town. Iran starts refining their own atomic fuel, which had previously been done by Russia under agreement. Neither will talk to the cowboy administration in D.C. and I can't blame them. Bushco isn't long on diplomacy. They prefer the invasion track.
C'mon, NoKo has already admitted to accelerating their program as soon as the door closed behind Jimmy Carter.
They only went public with what they had been doing so that idiots like you would think it was a result of American aggression.
I take it back. Even idiots aren't as stupid as you.
Misleading. We didn't live up to our side of that agreement anymore than they did.On Oct. 21, 1994, the Clinton administration signed a deal (the Agreed Framework) under which the United States supplied food and fuel oil to North Korea, and helped it construct two nuclear electric power generating stations, in exchange for North Korea's promise to stop its nuclear weapons program. North Korea took the aid, and (apparently) built its bomb anyway.
The only people who don't understand why North Korea is doing what its doing are American conservatives.
How is that misleading?
Yeah, that's why it's pretty much received international condemnation and earned an emergency UNSC meeting to figure out how to respond; because, everyone but American conservatives understand why they did what they did.
Is there a murderous regime you people won't defend?
It intimates that the reactors were built and are now operational and makes no mention of the delays and shotfalls on the KEDO side
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