By MT on 10/15/06
During the mid 80’s when I was in the army, a friend of mine described Korea as “the best kept secret that the United States doesn’t have to hide.” Personally, in retrospect, I have to say, 20 some odd years later, that I couldn’t agree more. The media has reported just enough out of the peninsula over the years so that the country doesn’t forget that there IS a Korean peninsula, but as to in depth coverage of events that happen there, there is not much that makes the headlines. This lack of interest, as well as the lack of news about Viet Nam, other than the reports on veterans, shows our willingness to forget conflicts and places where our military did not achieve a decisive victory. We don’t like to lose, ergo, we put losses out of our collective memories (unless you grew up in the rural south, where the concept of “Yankee aggression” still lives and breathes more than a century later). This mindset has steeped itself so firmly into our society that it has reached into our intelligence community; obviously, as there is so much speculation back and forth on whether North Korea actually did, indeed, conduct a nuclear test. Conflicting reports have been issued on the existence, or lack thereof, of radiation that would indicate that such a test has taken place. This speculation was not found when Pakistan conducted nuclear tests some years back, as our intelligence community was on top of things happening in the region and were able to confirm that such testing was conducted. We keep such a loose eye on North Korea, despite the fact that U.S. troops are BASED in South Korea, that we can’t even ascertain what was detonated in the supposed testing.
Now, laying all of that aside, let’s suppose we take the North Koreans at their word on this and believe them. They had been told, in no uncertain terms, not to research nuclear weapons, and they had agreed under treaty that they would not do so. The time for consequences has arrived. Japan has outdone itself with stepping up with us to take the lead in announcing sanctions against North Korea, not just proposing them, but putting them in place and enforcing them. We, the United States, have seized their assets in the U.S. and frozen bank accounts on our shores, imposing our OWN sanctions on this arrogant little thug and his followers, attempting to choke them off economically. The problem is that our “allies” Russia and China, both nations who do not WANT sanctions placed against Il, haven’t done anything effective and with sufficient haste to stop the little thug from doing anything to retaliate.
Is the world afraid of this little thug, that he might actually be a military force to be reckoned with? Are we concerned that we might be invaded by North Korea? What a HORRIBLE concept, to think that they might actually consider invading us. They could take over what, one of the Hawaiian Islands? Maybe? That’s presuming that their invading task force could make it PAST any ONE of our battle groups in the Pacific Fleet.
The time for talk, and the time for ignoring the little thug in North Korea, has come to a close. We have ignored enough “little thugs” through the years, world wide, that they are starting to network, something that they learned from, you guessed it, the United States.
Others posting on this subject: Right Truth with Dictators Laughing at America.
Open Trackback Weekend from 123Beta, Captain's Quarters is also on topic. Townhall as usual is all over the North Korea issue. Cake or Death, Weapons of Mass Discussion.
Another very disturbing detail about NK from BlogsforTerri.
