Saturday, October 7, 2006

Countdown to llaunch in Pyongyang

North Korea is preparing to test a nuclear bomb and may do so as early as this weekend. If Kim Jong Il actually goes through with it, it will be a huge slap on the face for George W Bush, and proof that Iraq should have been last in toppling the axis of evil, not first.

What did Iraq have? No weapons of mass destruction, but they did have some very unreliable SCUD missiles; which only hit their intended targets about ten percent of the time but when they did with devasating results. Iran is developing a nuclear program to be sure, but at the least the US has NATO and the Security Council on side; and sanctions may be effective against Tehran (they weren't against Baghdad). As for missiles, they probably have a range of 1600 km at most. They might hit Jerusalem or Ankara or Cairo, but that's about it -- and if they tried, the Arab League would almost definitely turn on it; because such an incident would provoke an all out regional war as well as civil wars in each member state, and the last thing they want for their respective peoples is democracy.

North Korea, on the other hand, does have long range missiles which if all stages fire properly could have a range of about 9,000 km. Conceivably, most of the European Union and southern Africa is within range -- as are the West Coasts of Canada and the United States. Plus, there is evidence that Kim is a genuine nut case; while the leaders of Iran and the former head of Iraq are at least mostly sane.

Pyongyang has been the biggest threat from the beginning, and the UN should have put Kim out of his misery a long time ago. It's way past time to liberate the Hermit Kingdom and reunite the Koreas.

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