and his brainwashed subjects would undoubtedly be better off in the long term if his regime were overthrown.
But I nonetheless want to applaud him giving the one-fingered salute to Washington with today's missile test launches. I wish I didn't feel that way, that I could be wholeheartedly behind any hegemonic power that was against the current North Korean regime, but I can't find it within me to be behind the Bush administration on this.
The current US administration's foreign policy has been so hamfisted since the invasion of Iraq that of course any country named as part of the "axis of evil" would have been utterly stupid to have not armed themselves to the teeth with exactly the WMDs - biological and nuclear - of which the West has shown such fear. North Korea is not stupid.
Tom Lehrer's song "Who's next?" now comes to mind.
Bush, you blew it. Nuclear weapon proliferation was winding down after the cold war, missiles and launch systems were obsolescing, the Doomsday Clock was wound back. It wasn't 9/11 that changed everything, GWB, it was your response in Iraq that wound it all back up again.
Thank you very much, Mr President. What a shame they haven't got that moon colony going yet - you're going to stay down here with the rest of us and enjoy the gentle radioactive contamination glow. Congratulations.
6 comments:
Thank you for referring to "Who's Next" - I've been singing it all day for the same reason - drawing some very odd looks at work!
It is hard to feel supportive when the only country to drop The Bomb gets all upset when another country tests The Bomb. Oh, and it is even harder to feel supportive when the country that wants to become a mega-uber-supplier of uranium (Australia) complains about another country testing weapons that are constructed using that very product - it's akin to dumping a 40 tone bag of prime hash in the center of Nimbin and then berating the locals when the smoke starts wafting skyward.
I'm annoyed by it because it will drive all the bleating sheep back towards Bush. He's the Pres, he's the guy to look to to protect us, so his approval ratings will go up and taking both houses back in November will be that much harder.
I wish they'd waited until after the midterm elections.
You're right MF. That is a more accurate view.
I'd dispute that nuclear proliferation was winding down pre-9/11.
Even if the end of the Cold War allowed superpower nukes to be downplayed, there are plenty of local tensions that are sufficient to inspire countries to try to build nukes, e.g. India and Pakistan.
North Korea isn't the big problem. The US had no military options there with North Korea already having the Bomb and Seoul in artillery range.
Iran is the real problem. There Bush believes there are military options and there is just enough 'how close are they to having the Bomb?' anxiety and enough international dislike of Iran to believe that he gin up another coalition of the willing to have a go at Iran.
He's wrong, of course, but that doesn't me he won't try.
I see - so the big nukes with decent maintenance programs were obsolescing, and the small nukes with dodgy controls were proliferating. Bugger.
Iran is definitely a worry.
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