And just when I was starting to wonder how long it would take for something big enough to happen to divert the media’s attention away from the Foley scandal, we get a little wake up call from North Korea essentially saying to the world, “Look at me, I’ve got nukes!” by testing a nuclear weapon. While nearly every country except Iran has condemned the act, and the UN Security Council promises to take action, many are left worrying what this all means. North Korea became only the eighth country, and arguably the most unstable, in history to explicitly acknowlege its nuclear capabilities. Because the country is so isolated, and many doubt its capability to launch long range missiles, the greater concern seems to be to whom North Korea would sell its nuclear technology and how this will all change the situation in the Pacific. Will Japan finally strengthen its Army as it has been reticent to do since World War II? Will China finally turn its back on North Korea? Many things are uncertain, but with the US already fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, few believe it is possible to spread our forces any further.
Did anyone really expect to see a smiling Kim Jong Il say “Just kidding you guys, we were just messin’ with ya!”?
While yesterday’s test is unfortunate and it may be some time before all the ramifcations are known, is anyone really surprised? The US, playing the role of world bully (perhaps sheriff would be a nicer way to put it) for many years now, has had sanctions against the country since the Korean War. But in the five years since our Chief Bully called the country part of the Axis of Evil, the North Korean government withdrew from the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, said it had nuclear weapons, refused to return to six-nation talks, and launched at least seven missiles into the sea of Japan. Unlike the still yet to be found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, unless North Korea was lying, we knew there were weapons or at least weapons technology there, yet we decided to go after Sadam Hussein. While it would have made me wet myself laughing, did anyone really expect to see a smiling Kim Jong Il say “Just kidding you guys, we were just messin’ with ya!”?
It doesn’t take much observation to see that if someone is bullied enough, they eventually fight back. Imagine that you are one of three kids being constantly bullied on the playground and the bully leaves you alone for a few days to focus on some other kids. While his back is turned are you gonna stay there and wait for him to come back and do the same thing, or are you gonna do like most and make sure that next time he passes by, you at least have a box cutter or a shank to let him know enough is enough? If you had the capability, wouldn’t you give your friends shanks too so you could make sure this bully would finally learn his lesson? Perhaps all of you sitting down and working out your problems would have worked at one point, but generally one can only take so much humiliation. Perhaps North Korea finally reached that point. Now the question is, what are the bully and his friends going to do about it?
28 responses so far ↓
Meghann // Oct 11, 2006 at 11:56 am
I think this whole this is F*&%# up and very scary……I wonder how long I will be able to watch my children grow up!
Aidan // Oct 17, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Well, while I can see how this is a scary idea…I can’t say that we (the United States) didn’t have this coming. If we were intelligent, we’d stop bullying other countries. Though I really doubt that this would make people like us any more…
Personally? I think we’re just screwed. As soon as North Korea figures out how to launch those nukes our way…we can only hope to make civil with them now…
Scotty // Oct 20, 2006 at 9:52 am
Has anyone been watching the show Jericho? Pretty sick. But fascinating.
Sean // Nov 1, 2006 at 6:35 am
I’m going to be the unpopular one on this post, but I think it’s pretty unfair to call America a “Bully” when you’re talking about the way we are dealing with totalitarian dicators. It’s not exactly a good position to be in… Bush’s whole Axis of Evil thing may have been a bit dramatic (and an unnecessary Reagan homage) but I think it’s a pretty large logical stretch to say that that was somehow the thing that made Kim Jong Il hate us.
There are some huge ideological differences between America (and many other developed/free nations) and a lot of the rest of the world - especially the theocracies in the middle east and the communists in asia. And the reality is, having an ideology of freedom and tolerance (which is what America has even if we don’t always live up to it) is going to be more or less ok with other philosophies… whereas a theocracy (and totalitarian communism) do not value tolerance or freedom and thus are going to be generally more aggressive.
Anyway - I’m not advocating a pre-emptive strategy in most cases, but I’m just trying to make the case that America’s international position is much less “bully” and a bit more “protector/policeman”… perhaps we shouldn’t be either, but it’s a complex situation when totalitarian, communist, military dictators with an axe to grind are sitting with their hands on the proverbial nuclear ‘button’. Someone needs to be around and prepared to save the day when the time comes or we’re all going to find a troubling future ahead of us.
Antonio // Nov 2, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Perhaps you’re right and perhaps I should have instead used the term sheriff for instance. Even still do you think the analogy holds true? Of course it is simplistic to say the Axis of Evil comment is why Kim Jong Il hates us–probably tantamout to saying the reason lots of black people hate the police is because of the Rodney King beatings–but that doesn’t make the observations any less salient I don’t think.
I think my main point was that eventually, the world reaches a saturation point of American influence and our trying to control everything. Your comments are right on though in that something does need to happen soon or there won’t even be a future ahead of us.
Zach // Nov 4, 2006 at 11:03 pm
A country acting as world-policeman can do no right in the eyes of everyone.
however that doesn’t excuse the fact that Bush is using Coldwar scare tactics: N. Korea is the new Russia; terrorism is the new communism.
colton // Nov 12, 2006 at 11:43 pm
all right, first off I would just like to say that the UN is a joke. None of their policies have any teeth at all, their combat skills are laughable, and their humanitarian efforts are half hearted at best, so I dont’t think the UN security council is going to be to mutch help with this.
North korea diddn’t builr nuclear weapons because the U.S. was bullying them they got nuclear weapons for the same reason that a criminal brings a weapon to a crime sceen; to make it eiser to get what he want.
I’m also pretty sure that North Korea has nuclear missiles capable of reaching the west coast of the U.S.
If you could provide some creditable examples of the U.S being an international bully that would be apreciated as well
Paul // Nov 14, 2006 at 12:18 pm
“The United States is one of the five recognized nuclear powers under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It maintains a current arsenal of around 9,960 intact warheads, of which 5,735 are considered active or operational, and of these only a certain number are deployed at any given time. ” This is info copied and pasted from Wikipedia.com. I don’t know the accuracy of the numbers, but I do know that even if N. Korea had a nuke that could reach us, I’m sure their intel can at least find this information out. A holdoff has been going on between major countries for as long as I know.
The reason we don’t want N. Korea to get them is because N. Korea is unpredictable. If you think about it, how much do you hear about N.Korea except the obvious. Missle tests, nuclear tests. Unless we have a spy in their war room, I don’t think we know what they’re really going to do. Their plans and agendas are unknown as far as I know, and that makes them very frightening. We’ve sanctioned them since the Korean War, and they’re not paying attention to us. They’re not going to start now.
Iran proliferating is the same problem, except worse. We know what their agenda is, because we know what terror groups they finance. Radical Muslims against Israel, America, and any non-Muslim power. We are NOT going to get our name off the hate list, it’s not going to happen. Not if we left them alone for five, ten, or twenty or a hundred years. It’s inevitable, and here’s why. The way radical Muslims look at it is if anyone messes with any Muslim interest anywhere, they are infidels, “kuffars”, and they deserve death. That means every non-Muslim in our country. In other words, most Americans. This includes not believing in their religion or saying that their is another God besides Allah or that there is no God. They literally want every country to be a Muslim theocracy. This is why we call them radical Muslims. That means every non-Muslim in our country. They didn’t even care that their were Muslims in the World Trade Center. The innocent Muslims who were American citizens died in “holy jihad”, too. An afterlife absolutely secured. It’s not a bad thing at all to radical Muslims. It’s the best thing that could happen to them, in their eyes. No amount of diplomacy or humanitarian efforts, reasoning, documentaries, or wars is going to change that. The terrorist efforts of radical Muslims has been going on since before most “educated” college students were born. It has only escalated. Some things we have done as a country have likely moved this ahead. However, it is a continual growing sentiment in the Middle East that non-Muslims need to be killed. Watch Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. If you listen to nothing else, pay extremely close attention to the live broadcasts and taped sessions of actual radical Muslims and listen to what they are saying and you can see that the American media has painted us a picture that is very, very false for whatever reason. Lies may help us sleep at night, but I’d rather know what’s out there.
Also, I’d like to say that everybody using phrases like scare tactics and fearmongering and things of this nature are mostly propaganda. Not everything that politicians have said about terrorism are false. Much of it is very true. The American media lulls us all into a peaceful sleep, while some members of our government have tried to waken us out of apathy. I’m not taking sides on issues like the Iraq War, or things of that nature, and I haven’t started building a bomb shelter, but I do want to know what’s really going on in the world and I’m not hearing it from any news station.
World bully is a little harsh, when all the other kids are throwing rocks at you and they’re all part of a club that’s spread all across town, sometimes it’s really difficult to stay in your own sandbox.
Believe it or not, Arabs coming to our country, learning how to fly planes, going back home, rejoining terrorist groups already working towards bringing us low, flying our country’s commercial planes into our national center of commerce, and our national building of defense is a bit of a big deal and does give us the right to do something about it. Remember, they had tried to blow the World Trade Center up in 1993 and had commited a lot of terrorist acts to non-Muslim governments long before. We fight terrorists more aggresively now, because past efforts to end terrorism haven’t worked. Whether we are doing it the right way is another subject entirely, but it is not our fault that they are killing us. We tried to stay out of having a war with terrorism for a long time.
The point is the unpredictability of the two nations. North Korea and Iran established diplomatic ties in 1973. They have both stood up to America and the U.N. and we haven’t done anything worthwhile to stop it. Will we and if we do, will it be the right thing? They eventually could become allies and work together towards bringing Europe, Israel, and the U.S low. They could work separately and we would have to face them on different fronts, including our own. Watch movies like Peacemaker and The Siege to see realistic ways that things of this nature are nothing to play around with and the fact that North Korea doesn’t want us involved in interests with South Korea whatsoever, and that Iran, along with Syria, financially backs organizations that want the blood of all Americans(and no, I am not being overy dramatic or exaggerating) and you start to see why these countries are much more dangerous.
I mean, if Iran gives a nuke to a terrorist group and that person and that warhead move into our country(which I am not convinced is anywhere close to impossible) they could set off a nuke. Iran wouldn’t be afraid of retaliation since the nuke has no “visible” connection to Iran, so we have no reason to fire a nuke at them. Even though they provided the money, materials, etc. for it to happen, we can’t prove it’s their fault. I mean, come on, they just want to have a more proficient source of energy, right? Please!
Sphynx // Nov 22, 2006 at 11:30 am
Was it ever proven to be a nuke? I thought I read that scientists believe the test was a ‘fizzle’, only producing an explosion equal to 500 tons of TNT.
Anyhows, the problem isn’t if they have the long range missiles to reach the U.S. It will take many years to down-size nuclear warheads to the point they can put them on a long range missile. I’m still alot more worried about the enriched uranium levels Iran is achieving by the year 2008.
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The United States Navy and United States Coast Guard use a mixture of tactical call signs and international call signs beginning with the letter N. For example, the carrier USS John F. Kennedy has the call sign NJFK for unclassified and navigation communications with other vessels, but uses varying tactical call signs that vary with its mission.
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