- Iraq's Saddam Hussein doesn't have nuclear weapons, but
President George Bush wants to use force to disarm him (and actually to
dethrone him). North Korea does have nuclear weapons, but President Bush
thinks we should use a diplomatic approach, without threats.
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- What's the difference?
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- North Korea has no oil; Iraq does. After a bloody war
in North Korea, you would have nothing but a poor, devastated country.
After a much easier war in Iraq, you would be sitting in charge of the
second-largest known oil reserves in the world.
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- Saddam Hussein is cruel man, but he seems - to me, at
least - a lot saner than Kim Jong Il. Recalling the image of Kim in what
looked like a 1970s leisure suit cavorting with former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright makes me nervous to think of him with nuclear weapons.
Saddam looks like actor Walter Matthau; Kim John Il looks like a character
out of an Austin Powers movie.
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- Of course, another reason the president prefers diplomacy
in dealing with North Korea, despite its now-revealed lying and deception,
is that this little country is one mean, tough little dragon with very
sharp teeth. A military officer friend of mine who has seen the U.S. estimates
of casualties in the event of a war with North Korea said the estimate
for the first few hours of combat is 72,000.
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- North Korea is the fourth-largest military power in the
world. It has more than 1 million men in its army, and another 4.7 million
in reserve. It has 3,500 main battle tanks and 26 submarines. It has so
much of its power perched on the Demilitarized Zone, just a few miles from
Seoul, South Korea, and 35,000 American troops, that there is no way we
could fight a war without losing thousands of men.
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- I know this sounds cynical, but as a character in a novel
by Benjamin Disraeli once said, the world isn't run the way most people
imagine it is. As a former political speechwriter, I can tell you that
I quit paying attention to what politicians say a long time ago. You have
to watch what they do. You have to look beyond and behind their rhetoric
for the real reasons for their actions. They don't always lie outright,
but they often neglect to tell you the whole story.
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- President Bush withheld the information that North Korea
had nuclear weapons for 12 days while Congress was debating his war resolution
for Iraq. It was certainly relevant knowledge and might have changed some
votes. That's no doubt why Bush kept the information secret. As a result,
whatever slim trust existed between Democrats and the president is now
probably gone.
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- Oh, well, it's a good idea not to go to war with North
Korea. I thought as much when Bush included the country in his "axis
of evil." It just isn't worth the price. The United States, France,
Great Britain, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan all have nuclear
weapons, so who cares if North Korea joins the club? Until the world gets
serious about eliminating nuclear weapons - and the superpowers are nowhere
close to that - you can hardly blame other countries for wanting them.
But we all have to face the fact that if these nations keep them and other
nations get them, one day they will be used. That won't be the end of the
world, but it will be a most unpleasant situation.
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- When I was younger, I was more into warrior stuff, but
now it seems that diplomatic solutions make a lot more sense than I used
to believe they did. I think "older and wiser" is just a greater
appreciation of life. One hates to see it cut short because of political
quarrels among politicians.
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- © 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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- http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20021030/index.php
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