Mission in North Korea No Longer Preventing

The Bush administration says that if North Korea transfers nuclear weapons or material to “entities” it would be considered a “grave threat to the United States” and the US would “hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action.” Time was that North Korea building a nuclear weapon was considered a grave threat. But North Korea has built a nuclear weapon. And the United States is powerless. So the White House has lowered the bar. When North Korea sells nuclear weapons to another country, then what will be considered a grave threat? Lobbing nuclear bombs at ships that come into the Sea of Japan? And by the way, what does “fully accountable” mean? It’s another undefined phrase like “victory in Iraq”. The White House has never explained what “victory” means or what it would look like. Likewise, how can it be proved that North Korea is the producer of a nuclear weapon that winds up in another country’s arsenal? And how is North Korea made fully accountable if it is proved? And, at the risk of repeating myself, what does fully accountable mean? This morning the New York Times reported, “Mr. Bush’s statement was viewed by national security experts as a major shift in deterrence doctrine, one that acknowledges that the mission today is no longer preventing North Korea from building a nuclear weapon, but deterring its use or transfer.” But the problem, right here and right now, is that if North Korea sells its nuclear wares to another country and if the buyer uses those wares against yet another country, how can it be established that the nuclear device came from North Korea? That’s a difficult proposition and that’s why the New York Times lead paragraph this morning read, “Making good on President Bush’s vow this week to hold North Korea ‘fully accountable’ if it shares nuclear material will pose a major challenge to American intelligence and diplomacy, requiring new equipment and a high level of international cooperation, administration and military officials say.” I never did like the fact that the United States had become a bully. I never did like the fact that from its position of super power, the United States had decided that only the United States could have nuclear technology and that the rest of the world had to bow down to the United States’ supremacy and ability to intimidate. However, the United States turning into a weenie nation is even more unacceptable. Our downward spiral into impotence has happened over a short period of six years at the hands of a bunch of insane, power-mad silly little men in the Republican Party who have never served in the military and whose every decision has been that of self-interest and could not have been worse for America as a nation or for the American people as a whole. With regard to the upcoming election and the Presidential election in 2008, the Republican cant is that the Democrats have no plan for dealing with Iraq and the other major issues that need to be solved and resolved in the next few years. Duh! Who caused the United States to collapse into ignominy? The Republicans have led us into disaster after disaster and because they have had control of the House, the Senate, the Department of Defense and the Justice Department, the Democrats could do nothing but watch the catastrophes unfold. And now the Republicans have the balls to say the Democrats have not presented a plan for setting things right. It is certainly true that it will not be easy to undo the failures of the Republican Party. Thanks to the Republicans, the Outstanding National Debt as of October 13, 2006 is $8,548,222,338,530.00. The population of the United States is 299,687,370. Each citizen’s (man, woman and child) share of this debt is $28,523. The National Debt has increased $1.63 billion per day since September 30, 2005. Thanks to the Republicans, the war in Iraq has escalated into a civil war and as of today, 2,756 American soldiers have been killed in this unnecessary war. Thanks to the Republicans, 655,000 Iraqis have been killed in Iraq. Thanks to the Republicans, terrorism has more than tripled throughout the world. Thanks to the Republicans, North Korea has built a nuclear device. Thanks to the Republicans, a sex scandal has erupted in Washington, DC involving teen-age pages, a Republican Congressman and the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. Thanks to the Republicans the entire world hates and reviles the United States. Where, may I ask, is the Republican plan to solve these problems by November 4, 2008?