What Is More Important?

[Ravenseye]

Poll question: What Is More Important?

What's more important (read - dangerous to American interests and should be dealt with) in current foreign affairs.

[Ravenseye]

1. North Korea

So many problems in the world, but the one we seem to not be dealing with is North Korea. They're making plutonium and nukes. They have a crazy leader, and they probably wouldn't care about selling a nuke to Al Qaeda or any nut with a check.

Iraq and Iran are bad, but they don't seem as urgent as North Korea.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I agree, and there are reasons we're not attacking them.

1) No oil.
2) No Israel.
3) They actually have weapons and we're scared they'd use them.
4) North Korea a far more difficult war theatre than Middle East.
5) Osama = Arab = Iraq = Iran. Easier sell to the idiot Americans.
6) Bush family financial interests in Middle East that need to be taken care of.

[pansypoo53219]

3. you forget

7) they also have an actual army.
the problem is georgie has to skip and chew gum at the same time because he is 'gulp' preznit.
and therefore we are seriously fucked for a generation.

[Hugin]

4. The United States... Keep it at home, brother. ;) n/t

[Codeblue]

5. My feelings

are that we shold definetely be doing something about North Korea. However, as with Iran or anywhere else, it doesn't seem very prudent to start another war before we deal with our problems in Iraq. We need to bring more troops home before we can even start thinking about attacking North Korea.

[Colorado Blue]

6. How about treating North Korea as a nation of human

beings instead of a pariah?

There is a limit to the good international punishment can accomplish.

Nazi Germany burst loose in part because of stringent economic punishment dealt to Germany after WWI. People were incredibly bitter. The message of Hitler fell on fertile ground. We are asking for a similar response by North Korea. As long as they are hungry they are dangerous.

We cannot control the world through fear. I suggest TALKING TO THEM, which Bush refuses to do; I suggest seeing that they receive the resources they require to live decently and grow their economy. This would create a stable nation and a potential trading partner, instead of a potential disaster.

Frankly I can't condone treating ANY SENTIENT BEINGS with contempt and brutality. This includes North Korea.

Finally, IMO, nations are arming themselves in response to a certain party's preemptive war. They are afraid. Worse yet, it seems we've managed to start up the Cold War again. Our hypocrisy in regard to nuclear weapons hasn't gone unnoticed. Russia is actively in the arms business again.

If we want other nations to disarm and cease building nukes we have to stop building and refining our weapons and threatening people with nuclear catastrophe. The subtext of all this sabre-rattling lately, given our lack of conventional strength in the field, is, do it our way or we will nuke you. Everybody on the planet knows we don't have sufficient conventional forces to overtake them - what exactly does that leave?

Is anybody surprised other nations are arming themselves?

And that still doesn't address the long-range issue of energy. The world cannot rely upon oil foreover. Nuclear energy must be considered as a viable alternative. For everybody, not just for the industrialized West. Better still: we must stop giving all our money and power to the oil industry, which is killing us in SO many ways, and work hard to develop new fuels. The fact that the oil industry now inhabits The White House is leading to catastrophe - geopolitically, economically, environmentally.

Frankly I'm about out of hope. At this point we are hanging by a thread.

[Spazito]

7. North Korea is a red herring, imo

The US will not attack them, will play footsie with them as needed and will continue with the PNAC agenda which doesn't include North Korea as a main focus. The middle east is the prize, not North Korea.

[neweurope]

8. Other -like getting your country under control...

on edit: You have the means but no damn RIGHT to DEAL with ANYBODY.

---------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Pegleg Thd]

9. The morons

in the wh are far more dangerous to this country and the entire world that all the other countries you named put together in one package.