Heads Up! President Bush Addresses the Nation 09:45AM ET

Fox News | 10/9/2006 | staff

[kellynla]

President Bush addresees the nation from the White House 09:45AM ET

[sasha123]

I'm not sure sanctions would work either, although they should implement them anyway. Sanctions may work in a country whose leader cares about his citizens. But, he just needs enough food and aid to keep his soldiers alive. He cares less about anyone else.

[dinoparty]

I admit to being somewhat uninformed about the China-NK relationship. What would China gain by invading NK? (serious question, not rhetorical)

[ichabod1]

Maybe Rove-Halliburton should invent a world-wide death ray machine so we could simply vaporize lil' Kim and anybody that steps up in his place. They probably have one now but they'd rather get a few million people killed in order to justify taking away personal liberties here at home and instituting a police state.

[truthluva]

I think W realizes that publicly declaring "we are going to nuke the bastards into the Stone Age" doesn't make for a good speech.

Lol. Even if he used his best John Wayne imitation?

[maryz]

The President leaves them no choice but to develop their own deterrent.

I think it's the Democrats who leave them no choice.

[Paine's Ghost]

Half the issue is NK and maybe the small half. What we do in response will be a message of weakness or strength to the Iranians and middle-east. NK just knocked a chip off the west's shoulder and the middle-east is watching to see what we do.

[RockinRight]

I think, reluctantly, the Chinese will be an ally in this. They don't want to see another Communist nation fall, but I think they also realize that Kim Jong-Il is a nutcase and if he gets a bit roney one day he just might turn the missle launcher around towards them. I don't think they're comfortable with a nuclear NK.

[r9etb]

How do you change a regime there?

You kill Kim Jong Il. There's plenty in NK who would be willing. And I think the Chinese are probably the ones who will make it happen.

[Mr Rogers]

First - I have 2 kids that have been in Iraq, and I'll be going to Afghanistan in a few months. Think a little bit about what I posted before you start calling names.

Second - you make my point. A war in Korea is not something to take lightly. Upwards of 20 million Koreans live within artillery range of nK. A nuke or two lobbed at South Korea might kill 500,000 - a conventional war would likely kill millions. I've been to the DMZ. It has hundreds of high rise apartment buildings.

'Stopping nK' would probably require a preemptive strike with nukes, laying waste to the entire country. We're not going to do that, and neither will anyone else.

So the question remains - how do we live with a nuke nK (and Iran)?

[Quilla]

"Do the North Korean people truly have the will to overthrow an oppressive regime".

Sadly, people who are left in the dark for decades have wills as fragile as candle flames.

[ichabod1]

The North Korean people are going to be basket cases for generations. They've been under glorious socializm for too long.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

There is that.

Now the SKs have to decide how they want to deal with this new development before we can make hard policy decisions.

[pierrem15]

It's not silentknight's responsibility to do something, it's the President's.

C'mon, admit it: even you have to be giggling when Bush talks about "decisive action" and the "United Nations security council" in the same sentence, as he did with the Japanese Prime Minister this am.

[dfwgator]

"we are going to nuke the bastards into the Stone Age"

In North Korea's case, The Stone Age, would be a step forward.

[ichabod1]

Watch out for mooses.

[pgkdan]

Sanctions won't work unless the Chicoms are on board...and despite all their talk about 'brazen' acts of defiance I don't think NK would be conducting these tests without at least the tacit approval of the Chinese.

[Puddleglum]

IMHO Kristol spoke reality, which is the 6 party talks have failed, NK has no incentive to stop, NK is a horrible and unpredictable regime which is especially dangerous to have nukes, NK only responds to threats of real action, the US should at least consider a quasi embargo to stop NK from exporting nuke and missile technology, and if we said this is unacceptable but now accept it, the world is going to begin to wonder if the US is credible any longer.

At the risk of sounding non-PC, the Korean War accompanied the birth of the UN and is the UN's tar-baby. Having said that, this incident may fittingly be the defining moment of the UN's demise.

Personally, I consider the fact that N. Korea conducted this test to be the final "F" on the UN's report card. However, the USA can only do so much unilaterally in China's backyard. I think an arm's race escalation for the area is in the cards.

PS - From Nixon on forward, the US has been feeding the furnace of the Cinese economy, and for what? A wrongheaded approach if I've ever heard of one, and one both Pubbies and Dims have nurtured. Now we have a big, well-fed monster that still despises the US and can do a great deal about it.

Bush and Congress need to tell China that we will not trade with them unless N. Korea is disarmed.

PPS - Bravado was never called for on this issue as long as the USA was feeding the beast.

[r9etb]

Those are options that aren't on the table. Assassination of foreign leaders is illegal, and the U.S. won't engage in it. Period. Full stop.

Ahhhhh, grasshopper .. you forget which country lives next door to NK. The US doesn't have to engage in it. Semicolon; go on with the sentence.

[jackv]

Seems to me it'd more humane to simply nuke them than to starve the people to death!

I say let Japan go to war on this one and US backs them in every way we can.

[ichabod1]

After seeing what reunification has done to Germany they are foolish to the extreme to want it for themselves. Welcome to socializm, SK.