North Korea, Part Deux
Now that the detection community has had their chance to collect their little particles and gases, get them back to the lab, and analyze them, apparently enough radiation was present in these collections for someone to decide that the North Koreans did indeed explode a nuclear weapon last week. Fair enough.
But I still have my doubts about their capability. Or whether they are as menacing a threat as the fear mongers (usually this is the neocons, but in this case, seems to be the left--but this is another story altogether) might have us believe.
If indeed their test was a nuclear weapon, it is far more likely that it was a dud (see my earlier post) than the more advanced 'suitcase bomb' type of device. The worst you could say so far is that they have a "big dirty bomb." But any regime that has a nuclear reactor of any type could do that. In fact, you don't even need that. A kid in the US built a nuclear reactor in the trunk of his car using old watch faces, lantern mantles and parts of used smoke detectors. It didn't generate electric power, but it created a hell of a mess, radiologically speaking.
Perhaps that is why the North Koreans seem intent on testing another device. It seems the want the real McCoy.
As for the fear mongers, I'm not too worried. North Korean missles fall apart in mid-air. The bombs are (so-far) duds. They've no navy to speak of. No money or resources to support offensive military actions. But most of all, they have no motive to break a cease-fire that has held for 53 years. Unless of course, they've simply gone as bonkers as the Jihadists and don't need a rational reason to slaughter their fellow man.
But you never know.
But I still have my doubts about their capability. Or whether they are as menacing a threat as the fear mongers (usually this is the neocons, but in this case, seems to be the left--but this is another story altogether) might have us believe.
If indeed their test was a nuclear weapon, it is far more likely that it was a dud (see my earlier post) than the more advanced 'suitcase bomb' type of device. The worst you could say so far is that they have a "big dirty bomb." But any regime that has a nuclear reactor of any type could do that. In fact, you don't even need that. A kid in the US built a nuclear reactor in the trunk of his car using old watch faces, lantern mantles and parts of used smoke detectors. It didn't generate electric power, but it created a hell of a mess, radiologically speaking.
Perhaps that is why the North Koreans seem intent on testing another device. It seems the want the real McCoy.
As for the fear mongers, I'm not too worried. North Korean missles fall apart in mid-air. The bombs are (so-far) duds. They've no navy to speak of. No money or resources to support offensive military actions. But most of all, they have no motive to break a cease-fire that has held for 53 years. Unless of course, they've simply gone as bonkers as the Jihadists and don't need a rational reason to slaughter their fellow man.
But you never know.
2 Comments:
Can you point to where the left is being fear-mongering about this? Which parts of their arguments are unfair?
Again, you seem to be indicating a moral equivalence between the left and the right, so I'd like to see actual quotes from actual spokespeople on the left who are acting as irresponsibly about N. Korea as neocons did for Iraq.
I haven't been keeping up with the N. Korea debate, so my questions are sincere. I just find it unlikely that the left is lying about N. Korea like the neocons did about Iraq (like saying we have have to go to war because our first warning that Iraq would have a nuclear weapon would be a mushroom cloud over the US). But, I could be wrong.
Moral equivalency...hmm....My take is that neither side is moral (based on their actions), so this does indeed make them roughly equal, they just commit different kinds of sins. Murder is a sin, lying is a sin, stealing is a sin, lusting is a sin. Sin is sin.
One need not lie to be a fear monger. Fear mongering is done in many ways. I have heard, on the cable new channels, and read, in many opinion pages, literally scores of Dems and lefties (sorry, if you want the quotes, you'll have to research them yourself. It won't be difficult) decrying how dangerous N.Korea is and how crappy a job Dubya's done dealing with them. Maybe so. But they are no more or less dangerous than Islamic radical terrorists, which the left is always saying the neocons are being fear mongers about. The left is probably right, to a degree, about Dubya in this case, even though he was distracted by the worst attack on American soil of all time. Still--two wrongs don't make a right.
The left says we can't torture people or we become like those we abhor. I agree. But then the left turns around and uses the same dispicable tactics that the neocons use to advance their political agenda. How hypocritical is that? We truly must rise above such things if we wish to call ourselves moral. If we give in to the temptation and do as those we condemn, we can never gain the moral high ground.
One must realize that the N. Koreans have been working toward building a nuke since the late fifties! (remember, I have profesional experience here) And now it's a problem? Now, it's to be blamed on Dubya? Because now they either have nukes or are very close to having them (I'm not fully convinced yet)? For the left to get up in arms about it, wave their arms, jump up and down, and blame Dubya is not rational or defensible. Therefore it is fear mongering for political gain. And in my eyes, there is not enough difference between the left and the right to (personally) support one side over the other.
The neocons are responsible for the deaths of at least tens, if not hundreds of thousands of folks in the middle east. I'm sure you'll agree this is bad. On the other hand, the left (by supporting and defending abortion "rights")is complicit in the deaths of literally millions of unborn babies in this country. I'm pretty sure you'll disagree with this. But there are millions of people who see this as I do--and they support the political right because of it, saying to themselves, in effect, which is the lesser of two evils here? An argument you've made to me several times in your support for Dems.
There is a fundamental point of view that all people form, and as I grow older I see how unlikely it is to change someone else's mind through (even reasoned, rational) argument. I know I'll never change your mind about abortion, though it grieves me to think you support what I consider one of the most horrendous things a person can do: slaughter their child, only YOU can change your mind.
My point of view has become as such: Both sides wage war, one on brown people, the other on unborn people. Both side fear monger. Both sides lie, waste money, and engage themselves in corruption of every sort. Neither side truly puts the interests of the people of this country first, their too busied trying to line their pockets, or get re-elected. So who should I support?
Answer: Neither.
You say I should chose the lesser of two evils. I can't. Because they're both responsible for evils I do not wish to lend my name to by supporting them.
I think both sides display IMMORAL equivalency.
Peace.
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