Is the US a hypocrite

[Jedi Master Carr]

It sure makes it seem that way

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021017/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_north_korea_14

Now first off I can't believe that the Bush Administration is shocked that North Korea has nukes, if they are, then these are then we got idiot running are intelligence because most people knew that they have had nukes, I figured they did. Next the question is what do we do? You see if we attack Iraq we set up a bad precident that people will now say we should invade North Korea. Of course, North Korea has nukes and if we invaded they would launch them on Japan and South Korea pretty quick, so that could be a good reason not to invade, of course there will be those that will point at North Korea and say that we only invaded Iraq because of oil.

[Prometheus]

The U.S. knows better then to go into any south Asian country . they have tried it too many times. Yes technology is way better now but any action on North Korea would weaken our stand with china which is already not that good. Iraq is one thing. It doesn't have near the weapons of North Korea. Any action against any Asian country would be bad on Our part. Supply lines would be a nightmare for one. Everything would have to come from Japan. The sea dividing japan with the mainland of Asia would be full of subs and patrol craft. The air would be full of Mig 29's. And if you know anything about aircraft you know the navy only has one fighter capable of fighting them. Not enough F 22's built yo be any use so its all F 18's. F !6's and f 15's from japan can help but there are just too many Fighters in North korea. Yeah it would be glorious watching a Marine division storm a beach . But without the air cover provided in Iraq they would not go far. The precedent would be a forgone issue. The issue of leadership would be the determining factor there. The bush people are using the fact that Saddam is a crazy dictator. Comparable to hitler as has been done. North Korea is a full blown Communist party . Well I could go on and on but Iwill stop here.

[ReaperFett]

Did you hear Iraq had an election yesterday? 100% turnout, 100% Saddam. SOmehow, I doubt a fair vote ;)


IMO, the difference is N Korea seems more occupied with themselves, as opposed to Iraq, who could be a Global threat.

[JonathanLB]

I don't know enough to comment too intelligently on N. Korea, but I will say they are a threat to the world in general and I'm not sure how we, or the world, should deal with them.

They have supported terrorist causes and pose a threat to their neighbors, but they don't seem to be interested in going over to the U.S. and blowing us up either. I'd like to keep it that way, so I really don't think threatening them is a good idea.

[Darth Viscera]

Nobody will say that the U.S. Government is hypocritical in this matter, except if they have some sort of nerve disorder, or are a member of the North Korean Politburo. Everyone knows that there's a difference between an isolated dictatorship such as Iraq and a fully armed and supported puppet regime of China.

[Jedieb]

That's right, it's a lot easier to start a war with an isolated dictator than a regime supported by a global power that ISN'T a pushover. We ARE hypocritical when it comes to China, we always have been. If we weren't, we'd have the same embargos against China that we do against Cuba. Communist China has raked up more killing and torturing in certain MONTHS than Fidel has in his 40 years. But it's one thing for an administration to take a richeous stand against a weak enemy (Cuba, Iraq) than one that is obvously better armed and more dangerous (N. Korea, China.) The administration is already spinning this. They actually used the words "praise" and "candor" in regards to N. Korea's admission. Why? Because they want to set up a policy that doesn't call for the same kind invasion they're currently manuevering for in Iraq.

Foreign policy isn't about moral crusades for opressed peoples. It isn't guided by consistent values. It's fluent from situation to situation. Whatever an administration spouts for one country or region gets reformed and reshaped for another. Anyone who thins differently is naive and should have their nervous system checked out.

[Prometheus]

North Korea has been a danger too the world since The 50's but as far as I can tell all they want is South Korea. But I agree with Viscera on the puppet of China thing. Even if they didnt have Nukes China does. North Korea wouldnt do anything without China backing them up.

[Jedieb]

I wonder what the administration's reaction would have been if that statement had come from Iraq instead of N. Korea? Carr is right, we knew what N. Korea was probably capable of. But the announcement caught us off guard. Here we have a country on Bush's "Axis of evil" list, and they're admitting to pursuing weapons of destruction, the same charge that we're currently leveling against Iraq. So what's the administration to do, schedule the invasion of N. Korea the week after Iraq? Since we don't need to worry about international opinion or offensive actions why don't we just go after them?

[Jedi Master Carr]

I agree with you Jedieb, and I think some countries will ask why aren't we invading North Korea (mostly Arab countries, maybe Germany and France as well, though South Korea might ask this also). Still, I think it would be stupid to invade North Korea and that is why we won't, they know that they will launch those nukes the second we launch any invasion. Still, it does make us look like Hypcroites mainly because of the whole Axis of Evil, nonsense. That is why I thought that was so stupid to name countries, especially North Korea, because we knew they had nukes then, and we knew we could never invade them, unless they invaded South Korea first. That to me is was the stupid thing, and sure we can back away from those words but that speech was the stupidist one Bush has so far made.

[ReaperFett]

IMO, the Axis of Evil thing was a bad thing to do, because youre basically warning countries that the US sees you as a MAJOR enemy, which could cause more violence.

[Sene Unty]

We have practically set ourselves up for attack. Before we blatantly told them "Hey your on our list so we will come after you." We have just made the list of our enemies grow.

[Sejah Haversh]

Oh, Reap, Saddam ran unopposed, just like he did in the past. There was nobody else to vote for.

[Darth Viscera]

posted by Reaperfeet:
Did you hear Iraq had an election yesterday? 100% turnout, 100% Saddam. SOmehow, I doubt a fair vote

Just a little tidbit of info, my mom had something to say about those elections. She was in Iran the last time that the Shah was running an election, and it was basically the same circumstances AFAIK as what's happening in Baghdad, except over there it's on a much larger scale because Stalin II is a hardass. People spoke of rumors that if you didn't go out and vote for the Shah that you wouldn't be able to get a Visa, and it turned out that he was re-elected at 100%, just like Saddam.

A couple of months later the students started taking hostages from the American embassy.

@Jedieb

Better to be hypocritical, then, than to start a nuclear exchange which could result in nearly a billion Chinese dead.

@All

I agree that the Axis of Evil speech was tactless and ultimately restrains us in our foreign policy from courses of action that would otherwise have been workable.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Not just a billion dead Chinesse but also a 300 million dead Americans and probably the other 4.5 billion people right behind us.

[Darth Viscera]

Really? They have nuclear weapons in the thousands?

[Jedi Master Carr]

Nobody knows China won't say besides if both of us launched of our nukes I think the world is gone, radiation would kill all life in matter of a few decades, also there is the whole nuclear winter thing that would go with it.

[Marcus Telcontar]

We have the power to wipe humans out - nothing more

The world will go on quite happily without us.

[dbn]

US government knew about N. Korea having nuclear power, we gave it to them back in 94. We asked them not to make any weapons with the technology, and use it for creating energy in their country.


on a lighter note, this can be a good campaign for zero population on the earth!

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Jedi Master Carr
Nobody knows China won't say besides if both of us launched of our nukes I think the world is gone, radiation would kill all life in matter of a few decades, also there is the whole nuclear winter thing that would go with it.

In the worst case scenario, we would not be launching all of our nukes at China, not by a long shot. Plus, there are anti-ballistic missiles to defend against nukes. We've been ready to build ABM's since the late 60's. I imagine that the first batch are already deployed, or at the VERY LEAST tested.

It's probable that the amount of Chinese nukes that are able to penetrate our defenses are insufficient to create an apocalyptic event, but trying to argue that point is moot without even knowing how many nukes they do have.

[imported_STELA'SHLIT'NURUODO]

China admits to 16 such missiles but I'm sure there are more. A few years ago there was a documentary about it. They showed a silo in china. But if they have 16 silos I'm sure they have 10 times that in mobile launchers. But the 16 would be enough. That would be 160 warheads. 160 cities, and what that wont kill fallout will do the rest. But on a positive note they are Russian type nukes so 60 % will miss there target. So 64 cites are toast and the rest of us live in caves without electronics. The medium ranged mobile launchers would take out Japan ,Tiawan ,Philippines, Australia and the Middle East.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well if it happened, I pray that I die in the first blast, I wouldn't want to be on the earth after an event like that, it would be horrible.