Posted on 09/11/2004 6:18:08 PM PDT by Indie
"So why doesn't Bush go in?"
China.
I wonder which would flip the Chinese out worse- a nuclear-armed Mad Hatter on their border, or Americans?
STANDING BY
Thank You Bill Clinton and Mad'lin Half-bright....The Klinton admin...the gift that keeps on giving...
Aside from the Korean War, what's the recent history of Chinese aid to NK? I know they turned off the oil pipeline for a few days. To me, that's a huge break in attitude since they were sending infantry divisions marching towards the Yalu.
If I had to guess, China is too interested in their international trade standing to risk pariah status from supporting a weirdo leader of a fairly insignificant swath of east asian land.
I'm sure more familiar FRreepers will educate me :-)
Why We Won't Invade North Korea
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2003-01-06-1.html
HUH?
One thing missing from the connection is mooslimes. North Korea is not a mooslime nation. It would be hard to make the nitwit populations believe that Kim John ILL has links to kerrorists. Though this is just the thing that could lead the Islamonazis to bid cash for nukes from the North Koreans...and maybe get one or two.
It's too late to reverse North Korea from going nuclear without taking down the whole regime of Kim Jong Il. The world sat by and let it happen all these years, and now it will face the consequences of letting a maniac Nazi-like state hold one.
The State Department has pressed the case for negotiation, and for offering the North a face-saving way out. While the State Department has won the argument in recent times, how to deal with the North is a constant battle inside the administration.
If Kim does a test, he will gain face, not lose it. What does the writer mean by a "way out"? Kim wants to be a nuclear power since that will allow him to continue his kingdom of the crazy.
As to South Korea's and Japan's reactions, well, Japan is already considered a "paranuclear" state by the FAS. There have been interesting indications and rumors for many years about what might be going on behind the stolid assurances that Japan will never possess nuclear weapons. We already know that South Korea has been experimenting, though apparently to a very limited extent.
As to what we or China might do when Kim does make a test -- I consider such a test as a certainty -- I don't imagine that we will do anything except tut-tut. China will offer their congratulations on joining the club, much as they did with Pakistan. I don't believe that Kim would be doing this unless China had conveyed clearly to him that he was to do so, and they probably have been aiding him directly. If he really were acting out of bounds, they would not allow him to traipse around, like his April visit to Beijing. Contrast with Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi, apparently who is persona non grata due to simply visiting Yasukuni a few times -- this despite an agreement to have reciprocal visits on regular basis. If China really were seriously upset with Kim, Kim would be even more unwelcome than Koizumi.
Of course, if by some freakish chance Kerry were elected, then we would immediately continue the Clinton/Carter appeasement formulation --- heck, we would probably offer to help them improve their yields and offer better missile technology. "Why sell Kim the rope to hang us when we can just give it to them?" seems to be the Democrats "thought" with respect to Kim.
China has the US by the nads as far as trade goes. IMO, they fear no one economically.
I think the Chicoms would react negatively if we attacked NK. I don't know what they would do, but because of the proximity involved, they'd have to respond for their own sense of soverignty.
Just as if China attacked Cuba, we would not stand for that.
The rulers of NK are insane. Most of the population is close to starving and they waste money on a-bombs and other weapons.
We don't want to invade NK and S. Korea doesn't want to invade the North, so why rationally does NK build these weapons?
We already under Clintoon offered NK food and energy, and NK cheats and broke the agreements. The country is run by insane people. That's a good reason to neutralize them before they use those bombs on the South or US.
Outstanding essay. Thanks for that.
abigkahuna is back from his summer sojourns. What an adventure including emergency operations for mrs big kahuna.
I remember an interview this summer between Art Bell and the Remore Viewr Mjr Ed Dames. Okay-Okay stop chuckling. Anyway Dames said NK would lite one off this fall. prpbably around September. Not a real streatch of the imagination if one reads the papers. But heres the rest: US would send in the navy, china would take chance to go avter Tawian and as ewveryone begins to go, everyone packs up and goes home because something in the skies tells everyone there are bigger fish to fry.
It all revolves around solar flares and earths magnetic shield.
Now you can file this away as entertainemnt as I do with much of Coast to Coasts guests; still, time will tell.
The Chinese Regime is a big problem re: NK. But I have to think that even they don't like the idea of NK w/ nukes.
Their major concern is that they don't want a reunited Korea.
Hopefully they can be made to see that NK+Nukes = bad time for everyone.
But I still say, if NK tests we have to go in. I think we should go in now and should have gone in years ago. Cliton/Carter screwed us.
In 20 years Clinton will rank w/ the worst of Presidents.
My guess is that this is the October Surprise.If it is, it'll be hugely beneficial to GWB. The Democrats were whining against going into Iraq, claiming that NK was much more of a threat.
Assuming it takes place in a deep pit! I'd expect the first solid indication we'll get that NK really has nukes might be atmospheric test a thousand miles out at sea, a few weeks before the election.
Kim's so crazy he might even think it's a good idea to choose ground zero so that the fallout crosses the continental US.
Accompany the demo with a statement from Pyongyang that "the dimwit George Bush" had better stop threatening N. Korea, and I think it would have a huge effect on the election. Maybe not like Kim would anticipate.
OTOH, Kerry and the rats would be all over it 24/7, claiming that Bush a madman and that he was leading us into a nuclear Armageddon. Hard to predict what would happen on election day in that case. Lots of Americans would be terrified.
China.
Nope. China would be perfectly happy for North Korea to go away. All China gets from North Korea are illegal aliens. North Korea is worthless as a trading partner, unneeded as a military ally, and diplomatically disastrous as a friend.
The real answer is South Korea. The South Koreans call the shots, here. Their asses are on the line in ways that ours are not, and they are scared. Any conflict means widespread death and destruction in South Korea, guaranteed. We can't wade in without their go-ahead, and that won't come until they get invaded.
A nuclear test might change that, though.
In truth, those Dems don't give a flying crap about Iraq or the Korean Peninsula, or even the Sudan, except inasmuch as it can be used as a weapon against the Administration.
All of their facile sactimony about the 'lives of our troops', except in the odd instance where one of them is personally close to some GI, is entirely manufactured. It is *all* about power.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.