Please don't scare us like this, Jack! I was having a pleasant morning before I looked at the image(of Bush peering through a pair of binoculars). I'm tired of reality and want to be convinced that everything's going to be OK even though we're only halfway through the second term of our country's worst president of at least the last 50 years.

He doesn't appear to have taken the front lens caps off the binoculars either, of course he probably doesn't need to because he is such a visionary.

Hey, don't knock our President. He's really standing up to North Korea. And he gave a stern warning to East and West Korea while he was at it.

Lucky us!

We live on the West Coast, well within range of a North Korean nuclear missile. Tram goes first, then SoWa, then you and me.

But, I'm moving to Las Vegas, baby, because that syphilitic North Korean midget with the two-dollar haircut spends most of his days knee-deep in gin and hookers and cocaine and he'll NEVER bomb his own... Mecca.

I like the MGM. You?

None of this North Korea crap would have been a problem if Carter hadnt worked to get them nuclear technology in the 90s. But hey, Jimmy got the "peace" prize for it, so he must know best.

Oh, and Clinton gave them reactors with the reassurance that inspectors could check on them. So much for that.

I knew they had to find a way to blame Clinton - even though it was Don Rumsfeld who sold 'em the reactors.

Daphne- unless they have a new missle system, we dont have to worry here yet..

I found this at Wikipedia:

"North Korea's ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction to a hypothetical target is somewhat limited by its missile technology. As of 2005, North Korea's total range with its No Dong missiles is only 1,300 km, enough to reach South Korea, Japan, and parts of Russia and China, but not to the United States or Europe."

Kari...

The Pres still has the final say as to who gets what though, right?

"North Korea's total range with its No Dong missiles is only 1,300 km, enough to reach South Korea, Japan, and parts of Russia and China, but not to the United States or Europe."

Yeah, but what happens when they figure out how to add the "Dong"?? Then we're really screwed.

Kari, in the 90s Carter and Clinton offered light water reactors, food and fuel oil in in return for the promise that N Korea would stop its Nuclear weapon program. (after Carter went unauthorized, on his own, and promised that the US would not use the military to stop them.)

Clinton said, “This agreement will help achieve a vital and long-standing American objective: an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula.”

Sheesh. The buck stops anywhere but here for guys like Jon.

We have the front page of The Oregonian of May 18, 1998, framed and mounted on our dining room wall. It displays an autographed photo of Winterhawks players, when they won the Memorial Cup. The other headline, which I didn't notice until my husband remarked on it, says, "Pakistan says it will detonate nuclear device". Remember that? The End Of The World As We Know It?

Eight years later, the Pakistani government helps foil a terrorist plot in Britain, and that nice man President Musharraf appears on The Daily Show and speaks the truth in a kindly manner about our President and international policies. The world didn't end, and I feel fine. "Mutally assured distruction" might have certain advantages.

Oh, and Clinton gave them reactors with the reassurance that inspectors could check on them. So much for that.

Forgive me for intruding on the "it's-teh-Clinton's-fault!1!!1!!!" narrative to which conservatives naturally gravitate, but we give our enemies light-water reactors because it is incredibly difficult, and expensive, to make nuclear weapons with them.

I dont "naturally gravitate" to blaming Clinton. I call blame where I see it. And I think Clinton genuinely hosed two major things during his administration: The Bosnian Conflict, and letting Carter dictate diplomacy to North Korea. Ok, three if you count bombing an aspirin factory in Khartoum.

Yes, its difficult and expensive to make weapons-grade plutonium with a light water reactor, but not impossible. Expecially when you have a crazy communist dictator like the idiot in Korea. I dont even know if those reactors were used for this. Who knows...what does matter is giving them those reactors started this whole mess.

Jim Sheesh. The buck stops anywhere but here for guys like Jon.

Ok, where should the buck stop for this one, Jim? I mean c'mon, W has screwed up some major stuff during his administration, but this one doesnt fall on him.

I typed "distruction" when I meant "destruction". But actually "mutually assured distrust", if aired diplomatically might not be a bad thing, either. It describes our current world situation pretty accurately.

Jon blames Carter.

CARTER?

Carter!

Hey Jon. Why not blame Hoover?

Or Taft?

It is true. A modem is a terrible thing to waste.

Its all Sam Adams fault. If he hadn't got the Sons of Liberty conned on the idea of a new country none of this would have happened. Hey maybe its Chris Columbus' fault. If he hadn't discovered America none of this would have happened.
Get the idea?
Maybe if Bush would talk diplomacy instead of labelling everyone else...
Whatever.
M.H.W.

Daphne,

There's plenty of blame to go around - not the least of which should be placed squarely on North Korea. Carter and Clinton deserve their share - apparently neither of these foreign policy geniuses realized what a psycho Kim was. Negotiating with such a loony as if he were rational IS a failure of the highest order. However, as far as I can recall, Hoover and Taft were not involved.

...or was that an attempt at a joke?

Wait... that means your first comment was a joke, too.

Darn!

Daphne-

A while back, in another thread, you asked me to read up on some history. Maybe its your turn.

Jon,

Daphne doesn't read fiction - which would describe anything that doesn't fit her worldview...

...and I doubt she asked you.

Now boys, the nuke card is clearly being played in response to our invasion of one of the three axes(plural) of evil. It's paranoid posturing by an unstable leader who considers our Iraqi occupation the first in a series of pre-emptive democratizations and he knows his Country is on the list. The buck stops with the paranoid leader who espoused that concept and lit the fuse. Can you spell "W"?

Jon read it in Wikipedia, written by talented elementary school students from across the globe as they learn... English!

Then, there are the stated facts, like these:

"In 1994, North Korea threatened to withdraw from the NPT, but backed off after reaching an agreement brokered by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Under the "Agreed Framework" North Korea would halt and eventually scrap its nuclear weapons program. In return, it would get international aid to build two nuclear generating stations:.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/northkorea/nuclear.html

History, pal. History. Not wiki-piss-ia.

Good link Daphne - perhaps I'm overly critical, but I find our UN ambassador's remark somewhat arrogant in light of the poverty which pervades N. Korea. "The U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, urged North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks in China, which have been stalled for month.

"If they want to talk to us, all they have to do is buy a plane ticket to Beijing," Bolton said. "

Think about how that comment plays to the populace of destitute N. Koreans.

Great, Daphne, you can read. Thats the same info I found at Wiki. BTW, all I did was use Google. It was one of the first links I found.
Frankly, I usually consider wiki the "op-ed" page of history on the internet, but it seemed to be the same information I was finding elsewhere on this topic.

Genop- about the "populace of destitute N Koreans"...they have no say whatsoever anyway. Kim Jong is a dictator. They are impoverished because he spends money on himself and his military. He doesnt give a flying crap about the people of his country.

The North Korean people might be too poor to afford a cart ride to Pyongyang, but from my understanding the Kim regime can pretty much buy/sell whatever they want.

I was wrong. North Korea's long-range missile blew up in a test a while back.

I feel SO much safer now!

But my 127,000,000 friends in Japan are having a bit of trouble sleeping these days.

Not to mention the 1,200,000,000 people in China or roughly 1/5 of the world's population.