[i]-Ok… let’s see who has the most nuclear weapons?
America = 10,000 (+)
Iraq = maybe 1… probably 0.[/i]
Hopefully zero. Presumably zero. The point, though, is that Iraq is a lot more likely to use a nuclear weapon, just as it used chemical weapons on the Kurds (definitely) and the US (probably). If Iraq had a nuclear weapon, there is a substantial chance that they would either A) detonate it inside Israel; or B) sell it to terrorists who would detonate it inside the United States. The US, by contrast, has had chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons for 50 years and has only used them once, in an extreme case of self-defense. In other words, despite the numerical disparity, the US has a much better track record. And is also not led by an madman.
Let’s be real… If Saddam had a nuclear weapon, what kind of threat would he pose to America? None… He would get wipped off the face of the earth.
Even if Hussein were sane – and he is not – this is not true. It is possible he could sell the weapon to terrorists and not have it traced to him. Even if it were traced to him, he could go into hiding and possibly survive. To say nothing of the fact that the US is not the only country he threatens – he also threatens Israel.
And, of course, there’s always the fact that he’s insane and might use a nuclear weapon even though it meant his own eventual death. Do you think he would have survived if he had succeeded in his plan to assassinate President Bush? Probably not. He tried to do it anyway.
And… Do we really have room to talk since we could kill the planet 10 times over.
What the hell kind of argument is that? Just because we have nuclear weapons, we have to let any insane dictator have them too? Give me a break.
[i]Ok… Let’s take a look at who has actaully used a nuclear weapon against a country.
America = 2 times against Japan. Millions of people have died.
Iraq = 0! [/i]
Yeah. America used a nuclear weapon two times against Japan – which had started a war of aggression with a cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor, which had sworn to destroy its enemies at any cost, which was running one of the most oppressive regimes (against foreigners) of anyone out there – and that’s a bold statement in the 1940s. America warned Japan that we would use nukes if they didn’t surrender. They decided not to (for a while). As others have pointed out, hundreds of thousands more probably would have died in a conventional invasion.
By contrast, Iraq used its weapons of mass destruction against its own citizens, who could barely be considered armed and wanted little more than the freedom to express their political ideas.
1) North Korea is much more capable of developing a nuclear weapon than Iraq, but yet Bush has handled the situation with kids gloves.
NK is a totally different situation, for reasons others have already posted. There is a good chance that diplomacy can solve that situation. There is no chance that diplomacy will succeed in Iraq, no matter what fucking France thinks. Although NK has now had two less-than-sane leaders, they are not insane in the “I want to kill bajillions of people if I only had the means to do so” way that Saddam Hussein is insane.
North Korea is one of the most militarized countries int he world with an army of a million men.
NK can barely keep its subs from smashing into the beach. Although they have a very large army and I don’t doubt a war would cause significant South Korean casualties, the Americans could minimize risk to themselves through the use of technologically advanced weapons. Or, you know, aircraft. A war with NK would be incredibly costly, and would have to either be very long or incur significant American casualties.
But to say that Bush doesn’t want to attack because we would get our ass kicked too much is probably not true. It’s more likely that he won’t attack because A) Americans probably wouldn’t stand for it, because everyone (except you, of course) realizes that NK is not nearly as bad as Iraq; and B) our staunch South Korean allies would be plunged into “a sea of fire,” as Kim Jong Il likes to put it.
