08-01-2017, 01:59 PM
(08-01-2017, 01:29 PM)Benton Wrote: Understood.
But it's a two-decade old problem dating back to Clinton. Bill, not the one who — according to the Right — is single-handedly destroying the economy, health care, the middle class and freedom from her couch while she sits around in an old sweat suit talking about 'what could've been.'
Bill was told North Korea was a threat. So he offered them a few billion bucks to dial down the crazy. The problem? That was Bill's approach, not Congress' or Bush's. If we had kept paying NK to not be crazy, they might have backed off the nukes. Or, if we had never given them the cash, they might not have ran through it like a crackhead with a roll twenties. Either way would've been good, but what we did was say "Hey, act crazy enough and we will give you some cash" ... and then we stopped paying them. So now we just get the crazy.
Which leaves us allowing them to continue bankrupting themselves in their show, applying diplomatic pressure (what we've tried with China and Russia up until recently when we started parking spy gear at the border), or attacking. If we attack (shoot down their missile tests), they'll say it was provocation for attacking SK in a defensive strike. Which means we will either have to get slapped in the nuts by a nut, or get into another conflict. And that conflict could potentially bring China/Russia into it.
Shooting down their rocket now runs a significant risk of having open conflict either directly or indirectly with us, allies and some major countries. Even if they manage to get a nuclear payload on a rocket, it's more of a threat to their allies (China/Russia) and our allies (Japan, SK, etc) than it is to us. Which might facilitate all of those countries opening up a dialogue to deal with NK.
But again, the past doesn't matter because the present issue is by next year they could conceivably put a nuke somewhere over the U.S. and thats a problem. Waiting them out is no longer an option. I am about as anti military intervention as you can get, but I think we are nearing the point where we may have to legitimately consider removing the regime of North Korea. I'd like to attempt to do it using the CIA if possible over boots on the ground or missiles in the air.
