by Lueyen » Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:30 am
Personally I think it's far too late at this point for our goal to be non nuclear proliferation in N. Korea. What we need to concentrate on is avoiding a situation that would give N. Korea a reason to use them, and keep N. Korea from selling or leaking nuclear products and technology to entities that would use them. This is not to say I think we should pander to Kim Jong Il or concede to his demands, but we should be making an effort toward actions that will improve the economy of N. Korea. It may be overly optimistic, but I don't feel Kim Jong will use nuclear weapons for shits and giggles. His goal is not destruction at all costs, but to retain power, something a destabilized economy in N. Korea will threaten, and it is for this reason I feel sanctions is a very dangerous gamble if not an outright mistake.
I'm more in favor of communicating with N. Korea, that is again not to say we should pander to it's demands, but to facilitate responsible control of it's now existent Nuclear technology. This is not to say we should try and control it's use, frankly retention of power and international pressure from the world will do that for us, but rather prevention of the leaking of technology or products to other entities or powers beyond the N. Korean government.
Of course the Untied States position and actions surrounding the matter are being closely watched by Iran, and while we'd rather not encourage Iran to develope a nuclear arsenal, I think we could effectively deal with N. Korea without doing so, and if played right possibly even deter Iran from doing so if the resulting situation is percieved as more intrusive then Iran would want to deal with.
Raymond S. Kraft wrote:The history of the world is the history of civilizational clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.