How does that happen? Seriously? That country is full of people who have suffered beyond just about what anyone has ever suffered in the history of mankind. True, most of them don't know it (or at least do good job of pretending they don't know it), but all that does is add brainwashing to the list of charges.
They have openly and brazenly threatened the destruction of the US for years, and now they finally have a nuclear weapon that could do some pretty serious damage. And yet, that only gets one sentence in Obama's State of the Union Address. Can you imagine if it had been Iran that got a nuke? How is this any different, except that unlike Iran which would do its best to hide a nuke, here we've got a country saying "we've got one, and first chance we get we're going to blow you all to hell with it."
North Korea is led by one crazy mo-fo. This guy. Eesh. And while he might not be as crazy as his dad or their predecessors, he is still a long way from sane. He hates the United States and everything we stand for. If we offered them food, they would throw it in our faces. It's not even a sensible or two-sided argument... like the Middle Eastern countries that hate us at least have a reason for hating us (misguided and off-base as it may be). There's really no reason for North Korea to hate us other than a 50-something-year-old war that no one over there was alive to be a part of anyway.
And yet, we let them go. We allow them to do their thing. Until recently they've been a mild curiosity at best. Oh yeah, North Korea? Full of whackjobs. Don't go there. But now, suddenly, things have changed. They have nuclear capability... and guess what? They're aiming it right at us. But has there been any fist pounding in Washington? Any big words or posturing? Well, not really. It's still all about Iran, Libya, all these other countries that, I'm sure, would be happy to leave us alone if we just backed out of their affairs. I'm not saying that's what we should do, I'm just saying UNLIKE them, North Korea is trying to pick a fight directly, openly, with US.
For those of you who have been reading along knowing the answer to this conundrum, I'm going to have to burst your bubble. Because I do know the reason why we haven't wiped that smug little dictator off the face of the earth. Both reasons, actually.
REASON #1: CHINA -- Just like we back up South Korea, China backs up North Korea. It's been that way since the Korean War, but with this most recent spat concerning nuclear weapons, even China has had to call over there and be like "dude, relax." Still, we know China would have to back up their homies if we went in there, and China is one sleeping giant nobody wants to wake up. Sure, it's easy for us to intervene over in the middle east because who's backing up the bad guys? More bad guys, and not with much. The only ally we risk pissing off over there is Russia, and even they've started to come to their senses on a lot of this stuff. China is a different beast. They are much more closely related to North Korea, government-wise, and while they aren't going to give speeches about "death to America," I'm sure if we fell they wouldn't be shedding any tears.
REASON #2: THERE'S NOTHING OVER THERE WE WANT. I don't care what anyone tells you... the reason we're involved in the middle east, the reason we've been there since what, the 40s, is because it is still the richest part of the world for the natural resources we all need. I would argue that our need for and desire to control those resources are what started us all on this road to hostilities there to begin with. But I digress, that's a different topic for a different discussion. My point is, we're over there because being over there directly benefits our country. North Korea? Well, that's different. This is going to sound heartless, but I think it's absolutely true. If we were to take out North Korea's leadership, we would wind up inheriting its entire population. A population that is so downtrodden, so beaten, so useless, that it would wind up being a huge burden on any of the other countries in that region. North Korea was allowed to go on for too long, to a point where the country cannot save itself. It has nothing to offer the rest of the world. Nothing really in the way of resources (at least not that they're telling us). And so, from a completely heartless standpoint, no real benefit to fixing their problem.
It's a really jacked up situation. But it's one we need to take care of before they start dropping bombs. And I honestly do believe of all the countries in the world who could and would, they are at the top of the list. I will leave you with this thought. Is it not possible that the reason we sanction Iran for developing nuclear technology, for launching satellites or rockets into space... is it not possible we punish them because we WANT them to stay relatively primitive? Could it not be that we want to keep the entire middle east beaten down and behind the times so far so that they will always NEED us to help them? Think about how much higher gas prices would be if Iraq could dig its own wells and didn't need Exxon or Chevron over there helping them out. Just think about that... and before you dismiss it, consider that we have a country over here who not only has access to those modern technologies, but openly plans to use them against us... yet also has no natural resources and no real value, and we leave them alone.
Good luck sleeping tonight!
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