What do they know?

Kelter

I live my nice little midddle class life in my middle class country in my middle class part of the world. For ages now when I see the concern that the US has for its security, I laugh. I think… why are they so concerned. Don’t they know that no country will ever seriously invade.

Then I see France doing nuclear tests. I think… why are they so concerned. Don’t they know that no country will ever seriously invade.

Now I see North Korea testing long range missiles. Shouldn’t these people be a bit more concerned with raising the standard of living in their country? I mean come on… why are they so concerned. Don’t they know that no country will ever seriously invade.

So I ask you… If these countries all think heavy military weapons do have a place… then what do they know that I don’t know?

Moriarty

How do you reckon we arrived at the current situation of detante?

The threat of overwhelming military force brought down upon anyone that upsets the status quo too much has been the stick which makes the carrots seem far more tasty the past 50ish years.

If you make the prospect of war with you costly enough then no one will go to war with you. Obviously costs are contingent on the nature of would-be attacker.

Chakar

They are looking in the long term, keeping all their options open.They aren't going to say "Ah we'll be grand nobody is gonna attack us".

Now I think the threat to the security of the world is from terrorists and these terrorists are using legal facades such as companies and globalisation to obtain their arms, weapons and training for their terrorists.

North Korea is going to be clamped down by America before Bush leaves the White House.

Gurgle

Chakar wrote:

Now I think the threat to the security of the world is from terrorists and these terrorists are using legal facades such as companies and globalisation to obtain their arms, weapons and training for their terrorists.

North Korea is going to be clamped down by America before Bush leaves the White House.

North Korea are a global terrorist corporation now?

And how exactly do you clamp down a nuclear-armed enemy who already has every sanction you can come up with applied to them?

Moriarty

The US & EU have had pretty good success over the past year in disrupting North Korea's organised crime operations. The flow of foreign currency (particularly US dollars) into - and then out of, to finance the regieme - the country has been drying up for quite a few months. This is putting renewed pressure on the regieme, from a new angle.