North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked ”” its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.
The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North’s border town of Kaesong.
I was a child in Korea when the war started. My father was an army pilot teaching the S.Koreans how to fly. We were evacuated out of there in the dark of the night and put aboard a guano ship for Japan…then flown to the US. These were the days before jets. It was a traumatic experience.
My fiesty Mother always hated that ‘ole Truman’ made (her hero) Douglas McArthur turn back from the whatever parallel and not wipe out NKorea. He might have been right.
I (her fiesty daughter) wish we had a strong (righteous and virtuous) warrior president (instead of a homosex/abortion monger) who could look unflinchingly into the eyes of NKorea’s leader and say, ‘Try it, you dog, and you will die’ or something to that effect.
McArthur might have been right, not Truman.
North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked
If you’re provoked, isn’t it a defense? Perhaps it is the George Bush Preemptive Strike.
I’m pretty sure the Kim clique defines “provocation” a bit differently, like cutting off the fuel oil the North Korean people use to boil their stones for soup.
Remember that the Norks to this day claim and teach that the Korean War was started by an attack by the South on the North. Not even the Chinese still believe that one, though you might find a few members of American English departments and divinity schools which do. We are not dealing with a rational culture.
Perhaps the solution to N Korea having nukes is to let Japan and Taiwan have a few – not officially of course, but let it be known through back channels that any attack on either S. Korea, Japan or Taiwan with WMD will be considered as an attack on the United States and the country or countries responsible will be subject to a full retaliatory strike.
While we are not dealing with a country that is rational by our standards, they are rational by their own. We need to figure out their way of thinking and work to let them see that using nuclear weapons is not in their own self-defined best interests.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
~1 I for one am delighted we do NOT have a president of the US who would deliver lines like a cowboy in a tuppeny Western!! Your dialogue is far from Christian
No, but I don’t know if our President has the spine to stand up to anything, dialogue or no. I’m afraid we may find out. I hope for the best. I hope this is just bluster, but the leadership of North Korea is not particularly rational, nor particularly concerned about human life, based on its treatment of its own people.
#1 may have a point in saying that, like Iraq, it should have been finished the first time.
Perhaps rugby player you would prefer a warrior, say in the mold of Neville Chamberland. His standing up to Hitler did not seem to work well. No, we need men and women of spine in the dangerous days.
Not much spine in DC these days on either side of the aisle.
I would prefer an eloquent and intelligent leader, unafraid to make hard decisions when called on. The line offered in 1 was, IMO, a bit inflammatory and needlessly violent. We should not glory in facing up to an enemy but seek to make a friend. Where that is impossible..we should act with caution but steel after much prayer.
[i]I would prefer an eloquent and intelligent leader, unafraid to make hard decisions when called on.[/i]
Too bad we don’t have one of these in the office of President right now.
Rugbyplayingpriest,
I, too, would prefer an intelligent and articulate president. Unfortunately, the United States passed an intelligent and articulate man by and voted for Obama.
The problem with Obama’s apparent world view it that it doesn’t allow for evil men that can’t be reasoned with (except, of course, for corporate CEOs – the are all evil). History is one of my favorite subjects and I know (particularly from the history of the 20th century) that there are evil people who cannot be reasoned with who don’t care for the lives of their citizens so long as they are in power. They will kill and maime millions of their own just so they can continue to rule over them. They will declare war and falisfy causes just to remain in power (see the Iran/Iraq war, the Fakland’s campaign, WWII, Korea (phase 1), Cambodia, the communist take over of South Vietnam, Stalinist Russia, the balkans, Rwanda, the Sudan and just about any other conflict).
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
When terror threatens to strike, only the strongest can stand up to the source of that terror and say “Go ahead! Try it, and see where it gets you!” Unfortunately, we have a president who would rather use diplomacy against a regime which uses terror as an everyday weapon, and which, by the way, understands our manner of doing things only too well…..and despises us for it. Kim Jong Il sees us as weak, vacillating, and pliable. Ultimately, we and our South Korean allies are going to have to use force, because the North will attack the South if they think they have a military advantage, and if they are stupid enough to attack, they will be finished.
There’s really no problem with this statement, which is simply descriptive of the North Korean government. It is merciless, and it is offensive.
As I read the quote from the North Korean (acknowledged despotic) leader, I do not see any direct threat of “nuclear attack.” I see a statement of possible nuclear response, when and if North Korea “feels itself” under attack, or it its naitonal sovereignty is “interfered with.”
In actuality (and I cannot believe I sound like I am defending North Korea) this is not too much different than the USA during the days of the cold war, nor is it different than the USSR’s statements, in which both countries reserved the right to respond with nuclear weapons, to any attack on that country, or our allies.
I hold no love for North Korea. The government there is clearly despotic, and the people of North Korea suffer greatly because of that government, even if many of them seem to feel positively about that government. Nevertheless, I think we need to be accurate in our characterization of direct quotations.
It still reminds me of the scene in “The Muppet Treasure Island”:
Captain Smallett (Kermit) just lost his sword confronting Long John Silver:
[i]Captain Smallett (whimpering): [/i]
“You know, I never believed that violence solved anything!”
[i]Long John (now holding the point of a sword to Smallett’s throat): [/i]
“Allow me to disagree!”
The wild card held by North Korea are the two American journalists.
#17, wild card? While their well being is something to be considered and discussed through diplomatic channels, the long-term security of our Far Eastern allies and ourselves is of greater import.