Tuesday, October 17, 2006

What can we do, who should we call, how much longer do we wait...

...until we take swift and decisive actions against North Korea to prevent them from nuking anyone. This is not a rhetorical question, this is a question about our survival, about the survival of the world. North Korea has called the United Nations sanctions, enacted against North Korea because of its nuclear testing, an act of war.

It is now common knowledge that North Korea has developed nuclear weapons capabilities, in fact they have already tested a nuclear bomb, albeit a small one. This has the other nations of the world so concerned that the United Nations has condemned North Koreas actions in apparent record time for them to get anything done. Russia and China, though not as forcefully as other nations, are calling for North Korea to call it quits with nukes. South Korea is beefing up its military and civil preparedness for a possible strike by North Korea, a nuclear strike. Japan is beefing up its military with defensive missiles, troop buildups, naval buildups and the like. This a very big change in policy for them, all apparently spurred on by North Korea's nuke technology and by terrorism. It seems Japan may also be considering becoming a nuclear power, and that is a super big-time change of policy for them.

Why all of this fuss since North Korea has boasted before but never in my lifetime has it actually started a war. Well you get all this fuss because the rest of the world is pretty scared of the guy who, I believe, acts like a lunatic who is in power in North Korea - Kim Jong Il. Lunatics, even run of the mill crazy people, often say this and that and threaten violence without ever doing it, but you have to remember they also often resort to that violence or worse after years of having whatever it is simmering in their brains simmer away until it hits the boiling point. If a mentally ill person is in custody in a mental health institution the threat is lessened; if a mentally ill person is on medications the threat is lessened; if the mentally ill person is running around unfettered and comes into possession of deadly weapons - well then people are at risk. In this case the whole world is at risk as I see it because I believe that the leader of North Korea is totally bonkers, he is in my estimation living in his own personal Bizarro World.

Now he, or his government, is reported as having said that United nations sanctions effected against North Korea for their proliferation of nuclear weapons is: "a declaration of war". See this article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,221478,00.html. That should scare anyone to action, and I do mean to action, not just to more talk. How long will we wait before doing something that will actually be effective in getting rid of this threat to world security. Sanctions are not going to do it. They have a history of being miserable failures when in relation to countries like North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. Heck there were sanctions against North Korea for years, and what did they do, they took the nuclear technology that former U.S. President Clinton gave to them, and they effectively used that t4chnology to create their own nuclear bombs. Now what is to prevent the crazy guy from going berserk with his new toys? Think about that, are sanctions going to prevent him from pushing the button? I doubt it. So what can be done?

Of course we could invade North Korea. We might even get some support from other nations on this, even more support than we got in the Middle East in either Iraq or Afghanistan. We may even get as many nations to support us as we had allied with us in WWII. Yet such an attack would be costly to us, we would lose many brave men and women and our military would be stretched very thin what with our other obligations right now; so I wonder what other way. Well, we could bomb them either with conventional weapons or with nukes. These would have to be aimed at very strategic points such as at nuclear testing sites, at power plants, at other nuclear sites and so forth. The nuclear option would probably be the most powerful, but also the one with the most dire consequences, not just for North Korea but for the whole world. I am hopeful it will not come to that. So what else is left to us?

A North Korean defector has given us the answer; we can eliminate the head man, that guy I believe to be the insane nut job, who has his finger on the nuclear trigger.

The man once considered the mentor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said Tuesday that the reclusive country's nuclear weapons program cannot be stopped unless the strongman is ousted. (The above quote is from a FoxNews article at: http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct17/0,4670,KoreasTopDefector,00.html). Now I think we have hit on an extremely viable alternative to getting this problem solved. Think about what would have been prevented had Adolph Hitler been terminated in some fashion, before he was able to fully implement his attempts at achieving his Third Reich. Think about what could have been prevented had Josef Stalin been removed from the scene shortly after WWII had come to an end. In each case, millions, heck 10s of millions, of lives would have been saved. It would not be all that hard to target this guy Kim Jong Il, and get him out of power in some way, before he becomes capable of launching or otherwise delivering nuclear bombs around the world, or even just to his closest neighbors. Should he do that, chances are that WWIII will break out in full force including no hold barred nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. What would he have to lose once he starts it, at least what would an insane man worry about losing once he starts killing. Not much and that is why crazy people on the rampage with weapons are so dangerous, so just imagine how dangerous is this guy with his nukes.

Would we get the support we need to carry out such a plan. I think we would. Would we get a lot of flack from countries who opposed the plan, sure we would. Would that flak matter, maybe it would, but not all that much as I believe too many countries in the world are truly scared of, who is in my opinion, the North Korean madman. Just about the only countries who seem to like the fact that North Korea has become a nuclear power are other pissant countries who sponsor terrorism. For instance Iran supports North Korea wholeheartedly, for reference see the article at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,221478,00.html. Wouldn't they love to be the recipients of this nuclear technology. You bet they would, and where would they aim it or send it. Right to us, and to Israel, if they had it; and as they lobbed them so to would North Korea toward Japan, South Korea, Australia and so on. They would likely even try for us, it is not that far fetched with use of commercial or military aircraft, or even with North Korea's missile technology.

So who would support us. Well out in the open, I believe we would get support from countries like Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Great Britain, Poland, Italy, India, Pakistan (how ironic from these last 2); and we would get more under the table support from countries like China, Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, almost all of the former soviet republics, most of the Pacific island nations. Of course, that under the table support would come out atop the table should we knock this guy off successfully. I think we would have a great majority of the nations of the world behind us on this one; but we would have to do it quick, and decisively.

By quick and decisively, I mean we would not only have to get this Kim Jong Il on the first attempt, and get him right out of power; but we would also have to have a decisive deterrent set in place to assure the North Koreans would not attempt to react with a nuclear strike. This would be basically what we had in place with the Soviets, and still have in place with the Chinese – a nuclear deterrent and the will to use it if need be. We would have to express our will to do so to the remaining North Korean government officials immediately upon our strike to terminate Kim Jong Il reign. We would also have to communicate to them immediately our desire not to go to war over his ouster however achieved; an we would have to convince them we were willing to leave it at that should they stand down in their nuclear arsenal. Then we would have to immediately commence a plan to help bring North Korea into the 21st century, as a peaceful ally, with offers of technology, advances in agriculture, and plentiful commerce. Sort of what we did with Japan after WWII, and look how well it worked there – Japan is one of our best allies where once they had been our bitter enemy. I believe the same can take place with North Korea; all we need to do is to get rid of the crazy man and get someone with some rational sense in place, then offer them our help to develop a nation as we did with Japan. History shows it will work; so why we have not done it already is a mystery to me because once he throws one nuke that could wind up being the end of us all.

All the best,
Glenn B

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