Tuesday, October 10, 2006
US Left with No North Korean Military Option
Our current foreign policy of “friends” and “enemies” has taken the Military Option out of the US diplomacy tool kit. By making South Korea a “friend” after the Korean War the US obligated itself to listen to South Korea when making foreign policy in the Far East. By forming open-ended alliances the US is forced to subordinate it’s interests to that of South Korea. Case in point, North Korean nukes.
“Baby nukes”, less than 1 KiloTon, are a far greater threat to the US than they are to South Korea. Baby nukes are perfect terror weapons that could be sold to the highest bidder. North Korea has a policy of military technology proliferation. Now that the world knows it works they can sell one for 10 times the amount 3 months ago. Does anyone believe Al Qaeda would hesitate to plant a nuke in an American city? Yet we no longer have a military option short of total destruction against North Korea. Why, because of the very real threat that North Korea will attack South Korea in retaliation. President Bush was left without a preemption option. He was forced to say “If the US is attacked by a North Korean nuke, the US will hold North Korea accountable”. Does anyone think this speech will impress Kim IL? Our foreign policy of 50 years ago has left us with retaliation as our only option. That means after a US city is destroyed, we will act. Too late for 2 million Americans.
What should we have done? We need a new foreign policy. See the post below. We are the world’s only Super Power. Friends are now more a liability than a help. That does not mean that stopping an attack on South Korea is not in our national interests. We don’t need South Korea to have this policy. We could chose it or drop as our national interests dictate. It means we should be free to choose saving a US city over the interests of South Korea. If the US and South Korea were decoupled, the North would no longer have an incentive to attack South Korea. The US is North Korea’s enemy. The North wants to grab the South for its own, not destroy it.
This president has followed the tradition of presidents since FDR. We label countries as friends all too easily. Bush has labeled the Soviet Union and China friends since he took office. Both the Soviet Union and China have been working towards our downfall for years. Bush has kept this news from the American people because “they are our friends”. Friends do not work for your undoing. Has Bush withdrawn the “friend” status of China or the Soviet Union? No. Do the American people have a clue what these guys are doing to us? No, a failed foreign policy that is still based on a 2 super power world.
Our current foreign policy of “friends” and “enemies” has taken the Military Option out of the US diplomacy tool kit. By making South Korea a “friend” after the Korean War the US obligated itself to listen to South Korea when making foreign policy in the Far East. By forming open-ended alliances the US is forced to subordinate it’s interests to that of South Korea. Case in point, North Korean nukes.
“Baby nukes”, less than 1 KiloTon, are a far greater threat to the US than they are to South Korea. Baby nukes are perfect terror weapons that could be sold to the highest bidder. North Korea has a policy of military technology proliferation. Now that the world knows it works they can sell one for 10 times the amount 3 months ago. Does anyone believe Al Qaeda would hesitate to plant a nuke in an American city? Yet we no longer have a military option short of total destruction against North Korea. Why, because of the very real threat that North Korea will attack South Korea in retaliation. President Bush was left without a preemption option. He was forced to say “If the US is attacked by a North Korean nuke, the US will hold North Korea accountable”. Does anyone think this speech will impress Kim IL? Our foreign policy of 50 years ago has left us with retaliation as our only option. That means after a US city is destroyed, we will act. Too late for 2 million Americans.
What should we have done? We need a new foreign policy. See the post below. We are the world’s only Super Power. Friends are now more a liability than a help. That does not mean that stopping an attack on South Korea is not in our national interests. We don’t need South Korea to have this policy. We could chose it or drop as our national interests dictate. It means we should be free to choose saving a US city over the interests of South Korea. If the US and South Korea were decoupled, the North would no longer have an incentive to attack South Korea. The US is North Korea’s enemy. The North wants to grab the South for its own, not destroy it.
This president has followed the tradition of presidents since FDR. We label countries as friends all too easily. Bush has labeled the Soviet Union and China friends since he took office. Both the Soviet Union and China have been working towards our downfall for years. Bush has kept this news from the American people because “they are our friends”. Friends do not work for your undoing. Has Bush withdrawn the “friend” status of China or the Soviet Union? No. Do the American people have a clue what these guys are doing to us? No, a failed foreign policy that is still based on a 2 super power world.
