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Tuesday, January 7, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Twenty years ago our gut sense equated nuclear energy with nuclear bombs. "It's clean fuel you crazy hippies", we were told. But now we are told in both North Korea and Iran how scary regimes can get the bomb very quickly after first getting nuclear power. And how the power plants in our own country are now our most vulnerable targets."
- - Michael O'Gorman (of Peace Roots Alliance)
RHINO HERE:
Frist off, oops, I mean first off, thanks to everyone who emailed me about yesterdays blog on Israel & Palestine. I'll just say that I believe it's impossible to create a definitive statement on the situation in the Holy Land in one blogging. After all its been convoluting over there for a long time. It was suggested I read & recommend Alan Dershowitz's difficult and compelling book on the subject, "Why Terrorism Works", so I pass that tip on to you. Also, I'm always open to receiving relevant articles (with working links) to consider for the blog, and I'll revisit the topic soon.
My friend Michael O'Gorman is one of the founders of Peace Roots Alliance; the folks organizing placement of billboards across the country bearing the message, Peace IS Patriotic.
http://www.peaceroots.org
He recently sent a note describing a discussion which included a short description of what he called the, Circular Firing Squads. I'm going to excerpt from that note today as I belive he makes sense.
Then I'll provide summaries & links to 2 articles regarding the nuclear threat from North Korea.
8:28:01 AM 
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... We discussed one evening, our country boasting its ability to "win" two wars at once in a world that has not been this frightening in decades. I learned how personal war had been to C------, having grown up in a military family, and then having her brother seriously wounded in Vietnam. We talked about the proliferation of arms. And we talked about fears of war involving North Korea. M----- said his Grampa always said war was for the munitions makers.
The United States is sending billions in arms to Israel. Israel is supplying India with nuclear delivery technology pointed at Pakistan. Pakistan is supplying nuclear materials and technology to North Korea. Spain intercepts an unflagged North Korean ship headed to Yemin with Scud missiles so they can point them at Israel. The US intervenes and gives the ship safe passage.
That's just one example, among many, of the circular firing squads that exist today.
We talked about how it is not one country (Iraq, N. Korea, etc.) that is the danger but the insidious and out-of-control sales of arms and technology for profit. And how the United States is not THE bad guy here, but, in many cases, companies that live outside the laws of all our countries.
We noticed, for example, that on the pre-censored version of Iraq's report to the United Nations all five members of the Security Council were listed as suppliers of key components of Iraq's weapons program up to this date. There was agreement to have the information censored because they were all participating!
Like Grampa said, the munitions makers are behind the war. So we talked about how if we could help expose that reality to the public, about how rich some people get if they can send weapons to fight countries that they armed in the first place. And how the American public may be able to understand and accept more quickly the idea that it is not America, or even our government, that is the bad guy but the war industry (Eisenhower's military-industrial complex) all around the world that is putting us in danger...
8:24:51 AM
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By DAVID E. SANGER, N.Y. Times, 12/29/02
The Bush administration backed away today from a longstanding declaration by the United States that it would not tolerate a North Korean nuclear arsenal, as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other officials insisted that it would be counterproductive to set deadlines for North Korea to meet American demands or make threats to take military action.
Appearing on several Sunday television news programs, Mr. Powell refused to characterize as a crisis North Korea's expulsion of nuclear inspectors and its declaration that it would begin manufacturing plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, insisting instead that it was a "serious situation." He acknowledged on the ABC News program "This Week" that the Clinton administration had what he called "a declaratory policy" that if North Korea began to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, the country's main nuclear facility, "they would attack it."
"We don't have that policy," said Mr. Powell. "We're not saying what we might or might not do."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/30/international/30DIPL.html?todaysheadlines
8:21:53 AM
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By PAUL KRUGMAN, N.Y. Times, 1/3/03
What game does the Bush administration think it's playing in Korea?
That's not a rhetorical question. During the cold war, the U.S. government employed experts in game theory to analyze strategies of nuclear deterrence. Men with Ph.D.'s in economics, like Daniel Ellsberg, wrote background papers with titles like "The Theory and Practice of Blackmail." The intellectual quality of these analyses was impressive, but their main conclusion was simple: Deterrence requires a credible commitment to punish bad behavior and reward good behavior.
I know, it sounds obvious. Yet the Bush administration's Korea policy has systematically violated that simple principle. Let's be clear: North Korea's rulers are as nasty as they come. But unless we have a plan to overthrow those rulers, we should ask ourselves what incentives we're giving them.
So put yourself in Kim Jong Il's shoes. The Bush administration has denounced you. It broke off negotiations as soon as it came into office. Last year, though you were no nastier than you had been the year before, George W. Bush declared you part of the "axis of evil." A few months later Mr. Bush called you a "pygmy," saying: "I loathe Kim Jong Il - I've got a visceral reaction to this guy. . . . They tell me, well we may not need to move too fast, because the financial burdens on people will be so immense if this guy were to topple - I just don't buy that."
Moreover, there's every reason to take Mr. Bush's viscera seriously. Under his doctrine of pre-emption, the U.S. can attack countries it thinks might support terrorism, whether or not they have actually done so. And who decides whether we attack? Here's what Mr. Bush says: "You said we're headed to war in Iraq. I don't know why you say that. I'm the person who gets to decide, not you." L'état, c'est moi. So Mr. Bush thinks you're a bad guy and that makes you a potential target, no matter what you do...
THE CONCLUSION OF THE ARTICLE IS AT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/03/opinion/03KRUG.html
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8:15:21 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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