Posted on 02/03/2003 2:59:45 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo
I'll take that as a compliment. (grin)
They would sell it to Saddamn in an instant. If they have not already.
Poor Bush, I can't imagine the weight on this man's shoulders. I am sure we don't even know the half of everything going on.
17 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. bombers, fighter jets and warships have been alerted for possible deployment to the western Pacific to deter any aggression by North Korea (news - web sites) in case of a war in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said on Monday. The officials told Reuters that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had not issued any final orders to move B-52 bombers, F-16 fighter jets or naval units closer to the tense Korean peninsula, now gripped in a nuclear crisis.
The additional forces have been requested by Adm. Thomas Fargo, based in Hawaii as head of U.S. forces in the Pacific and Asia rim. "If such forces are moved, it would be done as a precautionary deterrent presence against any North Korean aggression in the event of a war in Iraq," said one of the defense officials, who asked not to be identified. Washington has insisted that it wants to settle differences with Pyongyang peacefully and the officials stressed the possible deployment did not include any ground forces to join the 37,000 U.S. troops now stationed in South Korea (news - web sites).
Officials said additional F-16 fighter jets could be moved from the United States to bases in Japan and heavy B-52 or B-1B bombers could be moved to within emergency striking distance of North Korea -- perhaps to Guam. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, currently in Hawaii, might also be deployed toward the Korean peninsula if the carrier USS Kitty Hawk is ordered to leave the western Pacific and head for the Gulf in the event President Bush (news - web sites) decides to invade Iraq, officials said.
TENSION RISING ON PENINSULA
The defense officials spoke as North Korea said its troops were at the ready in case of any U.S. "military and political moves" against it.
The U.N. agency that oversaw a freeze in the communist state's nuclear program until it was thrown out in December said it would hold an emergency session on Feb. 12 and was likely to ask the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue. The Korean crisis was sparked last October when the United States said Pyongyang had admitted to developing a highly enriched uranium program in violation of a 1994 accord, under which the North froze its nuclear program in exchange for two nuclear energy reactors and economic assistance. But Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) took pains last week to reaffirm that the United States had "no intention of attacking" North Korea.
Bush administration officials, however, seem increasingly convinced that Pyongyang is determined to begin full-scale production of nuclear weapons. U.S. officials said on Friday that American spy satellites showed North Korea was moving fuel rods around a key nuclear complex, including possibly some of the 8,000 spent fuel rods that experts consider a key tripwire in bomb-building. But there was no sign that crucial reprocessing of those spent fuel rods had begun, they added. In the nuclear arms process, spent fuel rods go through a reprocessing facility where the plutonium for weapons is extracted.
You ain't dealing with camel jockeys here.
They have big guns and plenty of tanks. MacArthur is overated.
The Marines took Inchon. MacArthur pissed his pants on deck.
God bless the Marines!
In fact, that is why I post a lot of material on FR re: North Korea, including alerts, and try to cool down those who think that just because the civilians are starving and there are few cars in Pyongyang, they could not be capable of doing a lot of initial damage on us and our friends. In fact, the dire situation we see in the civilian life in North Korea is due to the fact that all resources have gone to fund their crack, organized, motivated and suicidal, serious war effort.
Actually, I think you'll find NK and Iraq are very closely tied together and this is not a surprise to Bush. Bush knew it when he first named the Axis of Evil..and everybody laughed, remember? Because of course we had a Bill Clinton Treaty with NK, so sweet little NK certainly wouldn't do anything devious...uh, right?
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the things that is keeping us from having to appear more alarmed is that this whole scenario was expected, and NK is already under the gun and has been for some time. Whether they know it or not...
Good time for Powell to go to the UN. This IS a job for the UN, if it doesn't want to be regarded as "irrelevant."
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.