Tongue Tyed: A Very Scary Statement

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: Name: Ty; Location: Dallas, Texas, United States

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Feb 10, 2005

A Very Scary Statement

"We ... have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North)"

This statement was made by the North Korean Foreign Ministry. I find not only the fact that North Korea has nukes disturbing, but that they feel threatened enough by our country to say we are the REASON they have them. This is a sign of how far we have gone from appropriate and healthy foreign policy. We have reached a point where countries are arming themselves against us. This is not what we stand for. After the Cold War, this type of conversation had largely stopped. I am saddened to be a citizen of a country that has shown another nation enough hostility, that it is protecting itself with nuclear weapons. I am aware there have been many problems in North Korea and many reasons to try to have them end their nuclear weapons program, but they have now stated that WE are the reason they have it.

I suppose I could play devil's advocate and suggest this is just a ploy to get us to leave them alone. That we would take them seriously and back off at the threat. But the fact is, even if it is an empty threat, they still almost certainly have enough information to back up their claim that we are trying to "isolate and stifle" them and that they feel threatened by us.

And while they say they manufactured them "for self-defense" if they were to take our stance on self-defense, who is to say that they won't preemptively strike. Just scary.

posted by Ty @ 2/10/2005

5 Comments:

At 12:20 AM, February 11, 2005, Anonymous said...: I don't blame North Korea for not wanting Bush in office. He won't build them the nuclear power plants that they use to make nuclear weapons.
The agreement that was reached during the Clinton Administration called for our help in building nuclear power plants contingent upon NK's cessation of their nuclear weapons project.
Its like telling a bomb maker,"Stop making bombs and we will supply you with dymamite."
They have used the fuel rods from the nuclear plants to extend there nuclear weapon portfolio from 2 to 8. They have blamed this on the Bush Adminsitration, saying that the Bush administration has backed out of the agreement by failing to build them nuclear power plants.

They have a great point. If I were in NK's shoes and couldn't get my hands on any new fuel rods, I would be pretty uspset too.
At 12:45 PM, February 11, 2005, Anonymous said...: Its always funny that whenever something goes wong for Bush, it can never be HIS fault. He's only had 4 years to do SOMETHING about North Korea.

Under Clinton we had nuclear inspectors in NK (which actually works, as we saw in Iraq). Under Bush they are gone and now NK has very scary weapons. Instead we had a war against a place that had no nukes and no possibility of even making nukes or any other WMD's...real smart move W. (insert sarcasm here)

But Bush talks to jesus and goes to church, so I guess that makes it all ok...

have a great weekend cuz,
rob
At 1:02 PM, February 11, 2005, Anonymous said...: Its even more funny that anyone would buy into what the leaders of a nation like NK have to say and lend them credibility.

Obviously the Clinton Administration's policies didn't work, and this is not a Bush issue as referenced by Albright's disturbing and contradicting comments below recorded during a "Meet the Press" interview.

MR. RUSSERT: But didn't North Korea develop a nuclear bomb on Bill Clinton's watch?

MS. ALBRIGHT: No, what they were doing, as it turns out, they were cheating. And the reason that you have arms control agreements is you don't make them with your friends, you make them with your enemies. And it's the process that is required to hold countries accountable. The worst part that has happened under the agreed framework, there was these fuel rods, and the nuclear program was frozen. Those fuel rods have now been reprocessed, as far as we know, and North Korea has a capability, which at one time might have been two potential nuclear weapons, up to six to eight now, we're not really clear. But in this period of time when there has not enough action been taken, I think that the threat from North Korea has increased.

As to your comment of "But Bush talks to jesus and goes to church, so I guess that makes it all ok."

I am sorry that you feel that way.
At 6:19 PM, February 11, 2005, Anonymous said...: Isnt that exactly what they said about Saddam Hussein? "how could we believe him, he's gotta be cheating". over 100,000 Iraqis and about 1500 American troops dead later, we find out that inspections worked (or Bush just lied).

"Obviously Clinton's policies didnt work?" 'Cause Bush has done so much better? he's had 4 years...and he hasn't even had negotiations with NK. Clinton engaged NK and tried to use food as an incentive to allow inspections of all nuclear sites(NK is so poor it can barely feed itself). Bush cut off talks, and now we are stuck with a nuclear (or is it nuc-u-lar) standoff...brilliant idea W. I dont know how anyone can defend a policy of "do nothing and just pray that it will be ok"

NK has us by the balls now. We have NEVER successfully convinced a declared nuclear power to disarm. And the consequences could be disasterous. Now S. Korea and Japan might want nukes to protect themselves (NK often antagonizes Japan), which may trigger an Asian arms race with China (which always fears Japanese militarization).

Clinton's policies werent perfect, but they worked to contain NK. We used to have access to nuclear facilities and even had permanent video feeds to their reactors and uranium deposits. With Bush we have NOTHING, and we can only hope our intellegence is correct (and we saw how bad they did with Iraq, i dont know how we can believe them...)

get over it, the fact that NK has nukes now is THIS administrations fault. I just wish that once in a while they could admit how bad they f*d up (again) and fix it instead of blaming everyone else.

rob
At 11:12 PM, February 15, 2005, Anonymous said...: hey cuz, since you havent blogged in a while, I got bored and decided to annoy that guy Banj on his blog. He's gotten pretty angry at me, its kinda fun.

for a few laughs (ok, they're not "side-splitting" laughs), check out his "state of the union" post.
rob

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