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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Why not invade North Korea?

There's been a lot of saber rattling when it comes to Iran recently. All of the Republican candidates except Ron Paul have said they would invade, or at the very least, bomb Iran to keep it from developing a nuclear bomb. President Obama has said that he is keeping "a close eye" on Iran.

Iran has talked tough, but doesn't seem to want war with the US. They talked about closing the Strait of Hormuz but have retreated from that threat. They have yet to take any sort of retaliation for the murder of their nuclear scientists.  And they don't seem to represent any sort of credible threat to the US.

But what about North Korea? They not only already have a nuclear bomb, but have said that they would consider using it against the US. They have conducted nuclear tests over the Pacific. They treat people who trespass -- even unwittingly -- onto their territory harshly. And they represent a threat to our allies Japan and Taiwan.

North Korea certainly fits the definition of a rogue state. The regime even starves its own people. They are effectively a militaristic kingdom masquerading as a communist dictatorship. (You know a government isn't exactly beneficent when it has to pretend to be a communist dictatorship in order to look better.)

Yet there is no sentiment here to dismantle North Korea the way there is Iran.

Gee. This is a hard one to figure out.

Guess it's time for the American-Japan Public Affairs Committee to kick into gear.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is easy to figure out.

Neither country can deliver a nuke that threatens US soil. Let the nations that are truly threatened clean up that mess. Europe, Arab, and North African nations for Iran. Japan and China on North Korea.

We should JUST STAY OUT. We've got plenty to do with the two engagements we are currently pursuing.

Next question.

Hoff

John Craig said...

Hoff --
Amen.

Anonymous said...

If scientists in the US were assassinated by foreign agents that would be considered terrorism. But many people in the US see the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists as the heroic work of special ops.

Its all a matter of perspective.

A quote from a recent Pat Buchannan article:

‘….last week, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said of Iran:

“We don’t believe they’ve actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon.” ‘

Hmmm. Outside Pat Buchannan’s columns everything I've read suggests Iran is developing a nuclear weapon and that Iran is a direct threat to both the US and Israel. It could be a peculiarity of my situation, but all the co-workers I’ve talked with on this subject carry the generic media's opinon and believe that military action is justified, if not outright needed.

How easily we are manipulated.

- Ed

John Craig said...

Ed --
All true, thank you.

Steven said...

Factors (my thoughts):

1) the Israeli/Jewish influence on American politics.

2) Can't do major shit that close to China without them agreeing.

3) Seoul is 35 miles from the border. Any action would severely endanger Seoul and its residents.

John Craig said...

Steven --
All true. #1 was sort of the point of this post (see last paragraph, a thinly veiled reference to AIPAC).

Steven said...

oh yeah I didn't get that last line.