Iraq [was Re: [CLUE-Talk] Slashdot Gun Control]

[Matt Gushee]

On Tue, Dec 17, 2002 at 08:50:04PM -0700, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> 
> While each of those countries may hate the U.S., the fact is that they
> don't really pose much of a real threat. I'd worry more about North
> Korea than Iraq... and I don't worry much about North Korea. Why?
> Because they realize that it would be suicide to attack the U.S.
> directly.

Actually, I think there is some cause for concern about North Korea.
Maybe it's just because I've spent time in that neck of the woods, but
I'll tell you this: there are probably three countries that pose a
strong military threat to Japan--China, Russia, and North Korea. As far
as I can tell, the Japanese aren't at all worried about either China or
Russia. They are scared shitless of North Korea, and I think they have
reason to be.

Kim Jong Il is like Mao at his worst--only without the philosophy,
without the honorable revolutionary background, and with a much smaller
and more docile country under his thumb. He makes everyone disappear
from the streets when foreign journalists show up. Back in the late 90s,
he turned away rice shipments from Japan and China while his people were
starving.  And he thinks Japan's territorial waters are his own personal
missile testing range. The guy is a loonytune.

Would they attack the US? Probably not. Might they attack Japan or South
Korea? Again, probably not, but who knows? Of course, if Japan would
just get a proper army of its own and stop relying on us to defend them,
we might not have to worry about it (and they could stop worrying about
our troops raping their women), but that doesn't seem likely to happen
soon.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)