North Korea Says Nuclear Test Successful

I've got a feeling they didn't really do it, but I'm perfectly okay with not calling them on it. I'd rather they fake-test a nuke than really test it.

20th century: the Age of Fake Orgasms

21st century: the Age of Fake Nuclear Tests

Just enter 41.311˚N, 129.114˚E into Google Earth

quote:

Originally posted by Vesper:
20th century: the Age of Fake Orgasms

21st century: the Age of Fake Nuclear Tests

Who knew my wife was involved?

Man, if your missus has nukes, I'd be careful what you say.

Oop, I was wrong. They set off a wee little nuke. And now El Presidente is talking about it... and stumbling around even more than usual.

"defied the will of the international community."

I tell ya, if somebody told me that the will of the international community was that I not do x or y, I'd immediately go do x or y. Unless of course, x or y was to make nuclear weapons. Because it just sounds like a whole lot of math, and I have better things to do.

Buy Defcon and practice!
The time to bite the big bazooka is nigh!

But seriously... Have you finished Fallout 1&2 + BOS:FT? If you haven't, you still have some time to get that oh-so-vital postapo experience

[/paranoia]

It's interesting how nobody's interested in moving in with an army or two into N Korea right now. And still, now we all KNOW they have WMDs . The irony of it all, duh

_{...but do they have oil...?}

No, but they have the power to make voters scared about Teh Terrah!

At last, something knocked Foley out of the news. Republicans everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

quote:

Originally posted by John Maddox Roberts:
At last, something knocked Foley out of the news. Republicans everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.

Yeah, it's about time real issues over took Liberal Grand Standing.
(I am just waiting for the Left to say this was something Rove did.)

quote:

Originally posted by Splitcoil:
"defied the will of the international community."

I tell ya, if somebody told me that the will of the international community was that I not do x or y, I'd immediately go do x or y. Unless of course, x or y was to make nuclear weapons.

Well, you might pause if it was the financial support of that international community that was keeping your company afloat. I'm not sure if upsetting Russia and China was really in N. Korea's best interest. Unless of course China and Russia are only pretending to be upset, but I doubt it.

I'd like to still disbelieve it. The North Koreans are nuts enough to actually pile 15 thousand tons of TNT in a cave and blow it up. (Wait, no, come to think of it, that's saner than them actually setting off a nuke... therefore there's little chance that's what they did)

There are any number of worries that this brings up. Tell me if you think I'm off-base here...

1) The North Koreans are starving desperate for cash, so they ought to be selling cheap nukes and know-how to every guy in a turban who walks in the door. The idea of "non-proliferation" may go the way of the dodo. What replaces it - security paranoia on steroids, or a doctrine of preemptive first strikes?

2) If the North Koreans hit Japan with a nuke, does the U.S. hit them with a bunch of nukes back? What does China think of that? Will the Chinese threaten nuclear war if the U.S. dumps them with fallout from North Korea? Does all this mean that the North Koreans can extort the Japanese for concessions and get away with it?

3) How in the heck are the Republicans going to convince the majority of U.S. citizens that North Korea getting a bomb after 6 years of Republican president, Republican House, Republican Senate means that the Democrats destroyed our national security? Yet I know they will.

.....then there's the fact that the Korean war never ended...

...and the fact that nobody wants to fight on the peninsula. Hills, forests, cities it is a nightmare.

Does NK have a missle system that can deliver this weapon? Blowing one up is one thing but making it portable is quite another I believe.

One member of the 'Axis Of Evil' (TM) has WMDs, one may get them at some unknowable future time, the other has none. Which does Bush attack? And now he's spent all his military, political and financial capital and has nothing with which to address the North Korean issue.

Everyone's saying they doubt it, but look how good our intel has been for the last few years and the pic gets bleaker than an ice storm in a burnt out concrete factory.

They have a very crappy missile system that crashes a lot of the time when they test it... but in some ways that's not reassuring...

they've landed casings pretty close to the Alaskan peninsula, from what I've heard.

This doesn't make me comfortable.