North Korea has been talking smack since before Operation Iraqi Freedom and they've come out and openly threatened us with nukes. We conveniently chose to ignore them for the most part and told their neighbors, you deal with this idiot. Nevermind that he openly threatened us with WMD.
While we may be frustrated by the North Korean problem, we have to keep ourselves and the war on terror in perspective. There are many possible fronts where action might be warranted, and we are wise to choose carefully which fronts should be acted upon. The Koreans have a unique relationship with China, and our best bet is to work diplomatically through them, since they don't want a nuclear war in their backyard. We need to keep our powder dry there, for now.
Instead, our President has his guns aimed at Iraq. He's claiming how Iraq has WMD's,
Actually, he is the second president to receive intellignece reports that Iraq had WMD's, and he waited and courted the UN for several months trying to garner support while Sadaam was able to hide (it's a BIG desert out there) or move the WMD that he had on hand. We gave him so much warning that for someone to claim that they were never there is as laughable as someone claiming Sadaam himself was never there, just becuase we haven't found HIM , either. The inspectors in 1998 had documented the WMD's, so we can be sure that they DID indeed exist.
how Iraq is the next breeding ground for terrorists.
I don't think any reasonable person could argue against Iraq having been a place that terrorists liked to gather. We found, for example, training camps with airliner mock-ups used to train terroists to take over planes. You aren't going to tell me that they were training Iraqi FA's for beverage service, are you?
However, my biggest fear was exactly what happened - no WMD's,
This was not my biggest fear. My biggest fear is that Sadaam, left to his own devices, would become one of the world's principal suppliers of chemical and bio weapons to terrorist organizations around the world. Now, the weapons programs have been disrupted and the existing weapons hidden. The ease of production and distribution has been ruined, and these WMD's are no longer easily available for sale to the most interested party.
people were initially glad that Saddam is gone, but now they want us out, and our troops are there with no exit strategy.
Of course they want us out. WE want us out. But this will not hapen until the time is right and a stable replacement government is in place. Our exit strategy will be determined by how well the Iraqi people themselves rise to the occaision of suppressing the insurgency threat in places like Falluja.
We're bogged down in Iraq fighting a "hearts and minds" war (Vietnam ring a bell?), no WMD's found, the entire world's support eroded in one year, the entire world now telling us to f**k off, despite Bush's claims that this was not aimed at Muslims - how do you prove otherwise and stop the terrorist attacks? 60% of the Army is deployed (Clinton f**ked that one way up by miitary cutbacks), and North Korea is still threatening us with nukes.
We are not "bogged down" in my judgement, and I remember Viet Nam.
The world's support? We still have the same multinational coalition with some new countries on hand. If you mean the French are still pi$$ed, I'm not bothered at all by that.
The world knows that the greatest portion of our efforts is aimed at terrorists, and everyone knows that the predominant terror groups are radical muslims. This is diferent from saying that we are not at war with
Islam, which we are not.
60% of the Army deployed? What is the alternative? We do what we have to do, when and where we have to do it. North Korea will be dealt with. Have some faith.
Living in Hawaii, I very well may be in range of North Korean missiles, somehow I didn't think Saddam was as much of a threat as North Korea, yet I believed my Republican president.
Korea is a much different problem than Iraq, and it will have to be handled in a much diferent manner. You can be thankful you HAD a republican president, or the WMD programs would still be alive and well IN Iraq, and still under the control of Sadaam, and getting developed and perfected every day while President Gore sent notes to the UN asking what he should do!!
Racial profiling? Sure... they're the predominant terrorist group.
Do you think that we are not watching them? (wink)
1) How come we've gone from being the most popular country in the world to one of the most unpopular and hated countries?
Because a lot of countries wanted to make money from these terrorist countries, and we are spoiling that for them. We are the only dog on the street that has the ability, the reason (9-11) and the desire to take on this terror threat that we had previously been confortable with as "someone else's problem" when it would happen in the Gaza strip or Hebron. Those 19 hijackers made it
our problem, and made it clear that we had better wake up and deal with it before we let it go any further.
2) Why are we in Iraq when there are no WMD's, people dont want us there? I don't buy the "fighting terrorism" argument. That's like leaving standing water outside in the bushes and saying we're fighting mosquitos.
No, it isn't. We are planting a seed out there in the desert, and once people get a taste of freedom, such as going from the one paper that Sadaam's son published (in between raping young schoolgirls) to almost 100 papers that are free to publish what they want. It's only the beginning. The best is yet to come.
3) Why couldn't the same policy be applied towards Iraq which was SUSPECTED of having some WMD's vs. North Korea who is openly hostile to us flaunting theirs? Is it oil perhaps? If so... is it worth the life of my loved one and other American lives? If so... why hasn't that been cited as the reason for war?
Ah, the old "oil" argument. If we are there for oil, why haven't we taken it? Why are we rebuilding schools instead? Could it be that we already have a program underway for dealing with Korea, which has an entirely different dynamic? Could it be that the way we are dealing with Iraq is the right way there, but would not be the apropriate way with North Korea?
I think that is the answer.
Is it worth American lives to defend our freedom? It always has been, and on this Veteran's Day, I am proud that they are my countrymen, doing the job that they signed up to do.
Now, if you want oil, we can have oil. Just talk to the environmentalists first. They'd just as soon kill you as save a duck. We have PLENTY of oil. But that's another discussion.
Thanks for this one.
