Evil Empire’s War Talk

WASHINGTON: North Korea yesterday blustered that it was on the brink of war with the US after President George W. Bush renewed his attacks on the "axis of evil" of so-called rogue states.

Mr Bush again labelled Iran, Iraq and North Korea the world's most dangerous regimes, warning they could face US action and prompting speculation about where the war on terror would lead after Afghanistan.

His warning, raised first in his State of the Nation address on Tuesday, drew an angry reaction from Muslim countries throughout the Middle East. But the most blunt message response came from North Korea. A spokesman for strongman Kim Jong Il said the nation was ready for war and had been wise to develop "powerful offensive and defensive means". We are sharply watching the disturbing moves of the United States that have pushed the situation to the brink of war," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

As the secretive communist regime's propaganda machine went into overdrive, North Korean state media said US warplanes had carried out scores of reconnaissance flights in recent weeks in preparation for an attack. The spokesman said Mr Bush's speech was "little short of declaring a war".

Undaunted by the strength of the reaction in the Middle East to his speech, Mr Bush reiterated his accusations against the three countries and warned that Washington was ready to act. He said all three nations were developing weapons of mass destruction. "They need to know our intention is to hold them accountable and the rest of the world needs to be with us, because these weapons can be pointed at them as easily as at us," he said. Iran, which Washington describes as the main state sponsor of terror ism, called Mr Bush -thirsty for human blood", while the Iraqi regime of Sad Hussein branded him "stupid, arrogant and irresponsible".

Former secretary o state Madeleine Albrigh also condemned the "axis of evil" speech, calling it "big mistake". She said many in the international community believed the US h "lost its mind" because of the way Mr Bush handled foreign policy. "I think it was a big mistake to lump those three countries together," she said. "They are very different from each other." That warning risked alienating foreign allies she said. We know that they are (already) not supportive of what we are doing in lraq or Iran or North Korea, so I don't know what the value is." But US officials said there were no plans for, any military action against the three countries. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US was not about to open three more fronts in the war against terror now centred on Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in New York, US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday urged world leaders to crush the cause of terrorism by stamping out poverty. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Mr Powell said' We have to go after poverty, we have to go after despair." AFP

SOME BACKGROUND ON N.KOREA

I have been monitoring the North Korean newspapers for some time now. They have NEVER taken a positive US stance. In fact, even when Clinton provided the two Nuclear Reactors to them, they still maintained a very harsh anti-American stance.

The statements by Ms Albright can only be taken at their face value as accurace - if you base you conclusion that North Korea's most recent statements are a direct result of Mr. Bushe's statements. But this cannot be done, as it is not true. The North Koreans have not altered their stance at all.

Ms,. Albright should know this, as should the media. Because of the lack of background on this matter, the impression that the Media provides is that countries such as North Korea is reacting harshly to his speech. This is so far from the truth that believing the words of Ms. Albright is exceptionally insane and foolhardy.

It is OK to want peace. It is OK to brand a person as to creating a war stance. But it is not OK to make accusations without the proper research.

The President made the statements that he did because of recient intelligence data that indicated that the North Korean government is a hositle state that has missile technology and that it has provided support and training to terrorist elements. He is not going to pretend like Clintons did that this is not occuring. He is being straight up and truthful. The truth hurts, but it is the truth never-the-less.

You may disagree with me. That is OK too.

But do your homework. Use actual facts to back up your statement. Stop acting like one of the Liberal elite whom have no data to back up their statements. Instead they have been known to do one of two things. They either make up false data, or misleading data. Or, they have been known to shrug off the facts through complicated sentence constructions.

In summary, the only point that I am making at this time is that The President is accurate in what he stated to the American Public, and that the reaction of Ms. Albright is Political in nature because the North Korean Press has not altered their stance as a result of the speech.

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