North Korea announce imminent nuclear test, UN is having none of it.

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Sorry, sorry. I get a bit carried away at times. In all truthful honesty we shouldnt even be arguing about Al Qaeda; its about N.K. and its nuclear weapons program. Maybe its time for a bit of thread splitting.

 

[Nanor]

I also hardly see how you can blame the UK for civil war in Ireland.
also by definition of civil war as.

I would like to stress:

My dad always said, every country the English invade, they make a civil war. Ireland, India and soforth..

.

Not me, I'm just passing on what he said.


Back on topic. I doubt the world powers will actually use their Nuclear Weapons in such a hurry. Our world leaders may not be the wisest, but they know what Nuclear Weapons do to the Earth..

 

[Taffy]

This is true Nanor. But my concern is what other people would do if, and indeed when, they get their hands on NBCW (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare) technology.

 

[Ronin Storm]

but they know what Nuclear Weapons do to the Earth.

Unfortunately, all we're actually left with there is the hope that they give a flying monkey's about that. What if some revolutionary-come-terrorist somewhere gets his hands on a nuke and figures that we're all far better off in their idea of heaven or something...

As pointed out previously in this thread, if NK starts selling nuclear weaponry to, well, anyone then we're all in the shit.

Depressing, really.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Points of View from Various Newspapers Around the Globe

I think the second of the Iranian newspapers had a very interesting POV. Basically blaming Americas policy and ridiculing it at the same time; if that sums up the general view of Iran then you might find yourself ducking for cover quite soon. Russia also seem to think that the USA pushed N.K. towards the current situation.

 

[Pestcontrol]

Update, radioactive traces have now been detected. Looks like the testing was of an actual nuclear device but fizzled before the nuclear reaction was complete.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

The USA detected radioactive gases, China detected ... nothing. You couldn't trust either one of those sources.

 

[Blammo!]

Have read most of the thread but never saw this mentioned anywhere so I'm just gonna say it.

After Irak got invaded the N. Koreans must have been scared senseless. Irak was one of the "evil" governments just like the US said about N. Korea. So what insurance does N. Korea have that its not going to be invaded while diplomacy is still going? Nothing at all. There's no military force on the whole planet that can stand up against the Americans. So how does N. Korea responds? Developing the only weapon on the planet that's strong enough to make the Americans think twice.

I think its their own fault that all this nuclear shit is happening. Bad politics from the Americans. Not that the EU or anyone else did any better but still.

 

[Pestcontrol]

The USA detected radioactive gases, China detected ... nothing. You couldn't trust either one of those sources.

I didn't mean to pass it on as a certainty, but hadn't heard that China detected nothing so that does cast it in a different light. I'd still put more faith in the American readings in this.

Blammo, NK is in a very different situation than Iraq was, even if Bush made a direct comparison with his axis of evil statement, i'm not sure if the invasion of Iraq factually changed anything for NK's situation. The effort to produce a nuclear weapon started much earlier and i don't think the "axis of evil" thing even marked a change in that.

 

[waterproofbob]

There's no military force on the whole planet that can stand up against the Americans..

Possibly not in shear numbers, but i reckon North Vietnam did a pretty good job of standing up for themselves.

 

[Gibsonfire]

Possibly not in shear numbers, but i reckon North Vietnam did a pretty good job of standing up for themselves.

Good point, the Americans did lose that war.

 

[Fi$hy]

It wasn't a war, it was an insurgency, so they lost....

Guess what else is an insurgency, that's right kids

 

[Pestcontrol]

I disagree, Vietnam was a guerrilla war. There are similarities but to say it's the same goes too far.

 

[Ronin Storm]

I believe that the the happenings in Vietnam were actually declared a policing action by the US, relieving them of certain wartime strictures that would otherwise have proven to be troublesome.

 

[Taffy]

You could say that the war that the Taliban are fighting in Afghanistan is also a Guerilla war. But the countries fighting in Afghanistan would say that there is NO WAR, they are just protecting and policing Afghanistan against an evil force threatening the entire balance of the world.

Thinking about it, the big powers really are trying to turn Global Terrorism into another Domino Theory. And they got that wrong before, didn't they?