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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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…