Posted on 05/30/2009 5:01:27 PM PDT by tobyhill
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would not accept it as a nuclear weapons state, as Asian security officials struggled to find a new way to deal with the isolated Communist nation.
We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia or on us, Mr. Gates told a major defense conference here that has been dominated by North Koreas test this week of a nuclear device and the firing of at least six short-range missiles, all in defiance of international sanctions.
Mr. Gates said that he did not consider North Koreas nuclear program a direct military threat to the United States, but added that its progress is a harbinger of a dark future. One of the chief concerns among United States officials is that North Korea will sell its nuclear technology.
Although Mr. Gates said that the administration was planning to discuss with its Asian allies how to move forward with the six-party talks aimed at persuading the North to give up its nuclear weapons program, he acknowledged during a question and answer session that it would be hard to point to them at this point as an example of success.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
U.S. leaders please don't keep making empty threats your mouth and our current limited military capabilities and resources can't easilly back up. Thank You.
Gates meets with Obama and Obama tells Gates to issue this statement. Obama cant issue it himself because that wouldnt give him Gates as a scapegoat if anything went wrong because the statement was issued.
Does anyone really think that gates on his own issued this statement without speaking with Obamalamadingdong about it?
Gates has become Obama’s Colon Powell ,just sucking along and being used.
Well let’s see. In 2006 NK set off a nuke, a very weak one, and then last week they set off a bigger one(estimated, depending on what propaganda they were trying to get across, from 20 Kt to about 4Kt.)and now they ARE a Nuclear nation. So, what does Gates and Bozo plan on doing about it? As far as we know they may have several Nukes lying about ready to go now that the last test was successful in producing a city destroying blast(eve 4Kt will level the core of just about any city). Are we going to bomb them to rubble or just talk big? My money is on just talking big and waiting to see if they actually
I beg to differ with you, but it seems you appear to be rather ignorant of recent North Korean history (the last 3-4 years...uh, who was President then?).
These things in fact DID happen on the Korean Peninsula under Condi Rice's watch. She capitulated (with Christopher Hill as her messenger boy and Bush signing off on the whole fiasco). Unfreezing BDA in Macao was just for starters.
Kim launched a series of combined missile tests including Taepodong-2 (long range) and Scud and Nodong into the Sea of Japan. Kim conducted an underground nuke test at the same location. In short, nothing particularly different than the last four weeks out of the North Korean regime under this idiot Obama.
The Bush/Rice action was: Paper tiger words and capitulation; The US MSM reaction was NOT to demand Rice take war action on North Korea but in fact to praise her "measured response."
Read your history. Rice did everything short of dancing the Maddy Albright jig in the Worker's Stadium in Pyongyang before a DPRK mass game. Given three to four more months into 2009 in full "Legacy Mode" (aka appeasement in search of ONE foreign policy success before leaving office for academia) and she probably would have. Please kindly don't spread falsehoods here on FR just to cover for the previous administration (like Clinton before it) who is handling off a terrible situation irresponsibly to the next administration. This current administration also being woefully unprepared or with the will do to anything about it, under this Obama character.
The only time the MSM raked the Bush Administration over the coals on N. Korea was when they were actually doing some correct things, specifically in the 2002-2005 time frame, before they went totally Chamberlain on us w/respect to Pyongyang.
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