Let the games begin . . . listen etech . . . we will never agree on much b/c every word from your mouth is gospel and every word from mine is rhetoric. If you want to talk as peers I would enjoy such an exchange . . . until then I will ignore your posts . . . right after I answer your last one
BaliBabyDoc
I don't know if you could characterize FDR as being eager to enter the war. Saying that he recognized the absolute necessity of it would probably be closer to the truth.
Semantics, maybe . . . Churchill and elites in the US military characterized FDR's attempts to enter the war as eager if not overeagerness. I can easily defer to the notion of FDR recognizing the absolute necessity to enter WWII and stop the Japanese in the Pacific. By the same token I recognize the absolute necessity to stop NK from developing and proliferating nuclear weapons. I recognize the absolute necessity to stop Saddam from developing and/or proliferating weapons of any kind. What I do not concede is Crawford, TX-, Cold War-, GOP-, Democrat-, Green Party-, Heritage Foundation-, Cato Institute-, or op-ed WSJ-mentality about chosen interventions.
Regardless, FDR wanted to go to war and was willing to make particular sacrifices to achieve that goal other than spending political capital at home. He desired the US population to DEMAND action so he would not have to explain in great detail why the US had a responsibility and dire need to enter the conflict.
Bush is no FDR. He certainly has the resolve to disarm Saddam but his temerity is self-evident. He believes he can lead the country into conflict using innuendo and plausible assumptions instead of evidence. FDR was right in principle wrong in action; but the outcome made his course a mute point. Bush may be hoping for the same but this is not 1941.
BaliBabyDoc
When did NK break the treaty of 1994 and restart their quest for nuclear weapons. Was it before or after the 'Axis of Evil' speech?
Hint, I already know the answer to this one. I just want to see how you'll fit an answer into your rhetoric that you posted earlier. Thanks for playing.
I would really have to sit down and read the whole damn thing . . . along with my evil lawyer family members . . . to accurately judge who violated the letter of the agreement, who violated the spirit of said agreement, and when did said offenses take place. Regardless, NK was clearly working on enrichment facilities throughout the 90s which violates the spirit if not the letter of the 1994 Accord. NK was NOT making more material b/c the breeder plant was shuttered. By official US admissions, fuel oil shipments were often late (days or weeks) and the two light-water reactors were at least 3 years behind schedule. Personally, I think making materials for nuclear weapons is much worse than a poor delivery record or the American tradition of not finishing large industrial projects on time.
But if you could be so kind send a reference to whatever source you've read that has reviewed the Accord in its entirety to confirm that it is only the NK's that can be considered in breech of the explicit (or implicit) terms of the 1994 Accord.
Thanks for playing
BTW, rattlesnakes tend to breed baby rattlesnakes that spread. Sometimes you just have to clean the nest out. To put it into the analogy, NK is often starving since they would rather spend their capital on their military rather then food. A nuke or two being sold on the black market would give a big boost to the capital they would have to spend. They also don?t seem to care to whom they sell their missile technology.
You know if I was going to kill a rattlesnake. I would use CO2 or an ether hood. Maybe even chill the den. But you have to do it without the beastie's awareness b/c it can strike at any moment . . . sometimes without rattling at all. Every ship short of a battlecruiser leaving NK waters will be searched. There is no way China will allow NK to move nukes via its border. NK is in the box. Let's feed them and talk to them with a soothing voice . . . small words . . . no big movements . . . while making it clear that the international market for their arms has been discontinued until they only sell naughtiness to people we like.
Bad ideas breed far more rapidly than snakes. Trust is difficult to establish and even harder to maintain but it pays great dividends. We cannot starve NK into compliance b/c they are already living at the margin. We cannot isolate NK into compliance b/c they are already self-isolated with the notable exceptions of Russia, China, and South Korea. All of those sovereigns will do what they feel is in their best interests. Bush (at least in the past 48hrs) is starting to get with the program. Working together the region will solve the NK issue.