What is it about North Korea that allows them to establish blatant disobedience to the international community? Have you ever heard of the phrase, “give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile?” I am sure you have. This is exactly what is happening now in North Korea. They tested our ability to stop them with the first missile test back in April.
Although, it wasn’t hailed as a big success by nations opposed to North Korea, it is appearing now that it was a much greater success then we are giving them credit for. With the launch of the first missile, disguised as a satellite launch, North Korea was able to test the resolve of the new Obama administration.
With the failure of the administration to show any sign of delivering military consequences, North Korea again tested our resolve with an underground nuclear test. This test did result with sanctions being approved by the United Nations. How well these sanctions will be enforced is anyone’s guess.
The majority of Americans are already war-weary from the years spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Publicly we are not mentally ready for another war. What is required by Americans is to take an objective viewpoint unclouded by our emotional mind-state. If we were able to use weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for invading Iraq, where these weapons haven’t been proven to even exist. What are waiting for with North Korea?
North Korea is openly testing missiles and nuclear weapons. The case that they have weapons of mass destruction is clear. They do, as they have clearly publicly demonstrated. There isn’t a reason to rely on accurate, or inaccurate intelligence gathering to prove this fact.
The North Korean regime is starting to find themselves in the same position that Japan found themselves with before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were in a no-win situation. The United States had placed harsh economic sanctions on the Japanese, just as we are doing now with the North Koreans. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1930 The Japanese understood they could not survive under these sanctions, so there only option was a war, which felt at the time, and historically proven, would not win.
What is going to happen when North Korea feels like they are in this same situation? The UN has now placed sanctions on the regimes main source of revenue, which is arms sales. They have tested our ability to react militarily. Before the launch of the first satellite, we were given the opportunity to deliver a precision strike, which would have snuffed their ambitions. Now we are faced with ICBM’s that can reach Alaska being prepared for launch.
What is to stop North Korea from launching a nuclear warhead attached to one of these missiles towards the United States? What will they have to gain from such a launch? The answer is there really is not much stopping them at this time. If the North Koreans launch a nuclear armed ICBM, whether it is successful at reaching an American target or not, will result in the disaster of our already failing economy. This is what North Korea want’s. Even though most expert’s feel North Korea will lose a war with the United States. The thought of financially toppling America is all the reason a rouge state led by an unstable dictator needs to launch an attack.
