N Korea says Japan not qualified...

[den4]

Love the comments in this news item....
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=247497

[groovewonder]

hell yeah the comments are great! also, i love how they integrated the discussion board into the news story.. straight to the point.. you don't have to click ten times to get to the discussion board, you just read the story and then read the opinions...

excellent site!

so why the hell is bush going after iraq when he should be going after nk?

[GomiGirl]

so why the hell is bush going after iraq when he should be going after nk?

Hello!! That is the 5.5 billion dollar question my friend!!!

Saddam makes good TV and good TV makes it easy to get re-elected no matter how stooopid you are. Would look really stoopid if he just said - "oops I assumed you had nukes, but the UN can't seem to find them yet.. " can't back down now.. has to start a war to cover his ass.

Plus a sucessful war via TV ie the Gulf war, with all those precision bombs "caught" on film is still in everybodies memory as a raging sucess that an encore (or sequel if you are in the movie business) was thought of as a good policy - bomb the crap out of the afganistan - might just keep the ball rolling as it was a huge success with the folks...

Korea was just too long ago and the war heros all have beer bellies now and don't look that great on TV and people have forgotton them anyway or were too young to remember or are not able to tell the difference between Vietnam and Korean wars ("weren't they both in some asian country?")..

Also, it is pase to be chasing the red's under the beds (so 1950's) and it is easy to be stirring up anti ME/muslim sentiment.. But poor old Kim fat-bastard doesn't make such a good nemesis for TV does he? A Mao-type jacket on an overgrown baby compared to a handlebar moustache and an army uniform.. hhmmm???

But I am not cynical.. not much!! Sure I know there are lots of other facts involved, but I am just highlighting some of my faves for Groovewonder.

Personally I think NK would be a great idea - for no other reason than we can all watch the whole series of M*A*S*H 4077 again..



What sort of series would they do in the ME? Too much sand and not enough Klinger!! Alan Alda still around?

But on a different note - there has been little comment on Venezuela... very huge oil reserves (5th largest in the world) but just a few minor problems of civil unrest!!

Unofficial site
Oil production comes to a halt

Got Oil?

[gaijinzilla]

A second Gulf War will enable Hollywood have a legitimate reason to make a sequel to Three Kings

[GomiGirl]

Then there is always the popular trilogy format..

Gulf Wars
The Gulf Strikes Back
The Return of the Allies

Is this life imitating art???

For a bit of fun.. but makes an interesting statement or 3..


Gulf War 2

[groovewonder]

wow, this site f*cking rocks! living on okinawa, i feel i'm surrounded by pro bush(bullshit) semper fi's. all respect to them, but everybody out here is a little too trusting of the god damned current president... i guess that's their job though... plus, none of them are ALLOWED to speak up, really..

nice to meet some "liberal" people for a change. maybe 1% of english speaking foreigners out here are not enlisted in the military...

i always admired you mainlanders.. last time i was out there, reminded me of a phish concert...

[GomiGirl]

wow, this site f*cking rocks! living on okinawa, i feel i'm surrounded by pro bush(bullshit) semper fi's. all respect to them, but everybody out here is a little too trusting of the god damned current president... i guess that's their job though... plus, none of them are ALLOWED to speak up, really..

War by television is a dangerous thing.. there needs to be more balanced as for the most part people are quite rational and can make up their own minds if they are provided with all the information.. but if all they are fed is propaganda, then this is no different to censorship..

The information is out there but the masses are either too lazy or too apathetic to look for it... but peer pressure in the millitary is a huge factor...

[groovewonder]

I'd go with....... lazy..

plus, most people can't even figure out how to use messenger, yahoo, and hotmail, let alone search for news anywhere else than msnbc and yahoo...

as much as i love my mother, she can't even seem to figure out how to turn on a computer, and the only news she watches is fox news and AFN (armed forces network), so you know she's getting the bullshit and nothing less... kind of a pain in the ass trying to persuade her of anything too...

some people just soak in propaganda like a sponge.. devout religious people, especially, seem to be gifted at accepting things on faith, like Bush's so called evidence against iraq.

[cliffy]

GomiGirl, A simple straight question. What does the Old man think of your Liberal stance on war?

[cstaylor]

To politely disagree, I would say the U.S. isn't going after NK in the same way because of the possibile consequences of war breaking out. Imagine if South Korea and Japan were both decimated by an October surprise missile launch from NK...

[groovewonder]

yeah, good point.. we have a lot to lose if we go to war against korea..

what does iraq have to lose if we go to war against them? lots? us? maybe a few of our boys, but BUSH buys a distraction and oil, oil, oil...

[cstaylor]

I was referring to allies in the viscinity of the target. The world economy would be blasted beyond repair if Lil' Kim turned this area of the world into a radioactive wasteland, while I'm not sure what damage Saddam could do beyond dropping scuds on Tel Aviv.

[groovewonder]

still, my point, it's damn shame the way bush is playing the general public of america for idiots, and most are believing him...

[Taro Toporific]

The world economy would be blasted beyond repair if Lil' Kim turned this area of the world into a radioactive wasteland...

Here's a good riff from BusinessWeek of all places about an alt-idea on what to do about Lil' Kim...

Why doesn't the U.S. buy North Korea's exports? Everything. Surely, we can outbid Yemen. If North Korea's foreign trade totals $2.3 billion, we could buy all of it for less than a rounding error in the cost of a possible war. We can use their missiles to test Star Wars, scrap the small arms, destroy the drugs and counterfeit currency, and still come out ahead. We might even be able to exert long-term influence to shift that output to useful, peaceful products.
Another Korean War? Don't Even Think about It

[cstaylor]

But I firmly believe that decisions regarding political or millitary intervention are not made on individual merits or otherwise of a situation but rather on the image reflected on the interuener and the hypocricy this highlights.

I do hope that whatever happens in Iraq will involve Iran shortly thereafter (most likely to give the Iraqi Shiites a helping hand)... I wonder if a new word for "Balkanization" will be coined shortly thereafter?

[Taro Toporific]

nice to meet some "liberal" people for a change. maybe 1% of english speaking foreigners out here are not enlisted in the military...
...

Well, they do have their uses...

Pentagon: N. Korea Not Mobilizing Army
Despite its tough talk, North Korea has not mobilized its forces, has not hunkered down in the many tunnels it has dug into the mountainous terrain and is performing fewer than usual military training exercises near the heavily guarded border, Pentagon officials said this week.

Part of the reason could be a fuel shortage so severe that it even affects North Korea's 1.2 million-member military, which gets first crack at all of the destitute country's meager resources, the officials said.

[cliffy]

Cliffy,
The short answer is that maj. dad and I hold fairly similar views. My views are not altogether liberal, it is more a cynicism with the manipulation of the truth, people and the ideal of democratic process by people in power for their own selfish purposes. Nothing is ever black and white but the truth is too often distorted to beyond all recognition and fed to the masses to gain public support for less than Utopian. dare I say imoral, purposes.
Owellian, yes! Conspiracy theorist. no

GG

Thanks for the answer, as I figured you and Maj. Dad would gather your own Int. and make your own minds up with that. Unless I am totaly incorrect , my faith in you is justified . No traps or sarcasam, just intelectual awe

[Taro Toporific]

... but if all they are fed is propaganda, then this is no different to censorship..

Check out this tres-kool agitprop poster from NK threating to blow up the US Capital...

http://asia.news.yahoo.com//030131/ap/tok803013107.html