The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Friday, February 11, 2005

Korea's Nukes

Well, we now know that Kim Jong Il has nuclear weapons. The right will say: "see, we told you this would happen. Axis of Evil." the left will say: "See, we told you this would happen if you took your eyes off the ball and attacked Iraq." I thought I'd weigh in. There are so many things here that I don't know, and I don't want to display ignorance. So I will take the balanced approach, and that is: "If I was Korea, would I want nuclear weapons?" Well, I think that the only reasonable answer is "yes." If Saddam had had Nukes, we all know America would have picked on someone else first, and used diplomatic pressure to get Saddam to disarm...and he would still be in power. American can no longer claim that we have never attacked anyone who did not attack us, or one of our allies. We lost that. BUSH LOST THAT FOR US. You might decide that what we got in return was worth it, but please don't lie to yourself about the trade-off, O.K?
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And no weapons of Mass Destruction were found. Which means that if I was Korea, I would know that not having Nukes is no protection against being accused of having them, and being subsequently attacked. No, the only defense is to be up-front and say "Yep! I've got 'em!" In fact, if I DIDN'T have them, I might still lie and say I did. Mr. Bush did that, too.
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The world has changed. I still pray that the overall strategy is going to weigh in as more positive than negative, that he and his NeoCons are implementing a genius-level coup agaisn the dictators of the world. It is possible that freedom will sprout like mushrooms after a summer rain-it really is. But folks, that had BETTER happen, because it is undeniable that America did something drastic here. Someting potentially as dangerous as any action any country has ever taken in the history of the world.
We'd better pray it works.
Steve

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