10.09.06
My annihilation by nuclear bomb doesn’t bother me nearly as much as day to day cultural decline. Strange, eh?
For those following the news about North Korea’s weekend nuclear test, you may comment here. Post relevant news and blog links here, too.
If you trackback to an LBC post, a link to my post must appear in your post, or the trackback will be deleted. (I’ll go easy on new bloggers.)
News Sources:
- U.S. Official: North Korea Tested Nuclear Weapon
- N. Korea Reports 1st Nuclear Arms Test
- N. Korea Claims Nuclear Test
Bloggers:
- Church and State: “I’m with La Shawn Barber…”
- Independent Conservative: “The USA is going to have to give up the White Guilt trip and deal with these issues with a forceful response…”
- Michelle Malkin: “We are in range.”
- Hot Air: “The Russian officials claim that the bomb has a 20-kiloton yield, similar to the one used on Nagasaki, and would be capable of killing 200,000 people.”
- Right Wing Nut House: “The apparently successful North Korean nuclear test – long expected but still a shock to the world’s nervous system – signals a change on the strategic threat board at the Pentagon the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Soviet Union acquired the bomb in 1949.”
- League of the Scarlet Pimpernel: “Despite what all the talking heads said on Sunday I predicted this would happen Saturday.”
- Op-For: “My source on the peninsula says that South Korea is -understandably- having a cow, same with Japan. And think of all the nations that are within the fallout range of a green-glowing, radioactive Korea. Russia, China, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Taiwan, the list goes on.”
- Outside the Beltway: “North Korea Officially Joins Nuclear Club.”
- Captain’s Quarters: “Russia Flacks For Kim Jong-Ill.”
- Atlas Shrugs: “More leftarded appeasement thinking…If true, this is bad news, very bad news.”
- Debbie Schlussel: “If we had any guts and had any intention of sending North Korea’s Kim Jong Il a message, instead of empty “tough” talk, we would have shot its Taepodong-2 missiles down, last night, when he was testing them.”
- Wizbang: “Bad news for Bush? Normally a Bush supporter on terror, Tammy Bruce was on Fox saying this NoKo nuke test is a reminder that the Bush admin has failed on this issue…”
32 Comments
The Club Gets Larger?
North Korea wanted the bomb, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. That’s a lesson that must be driven home now, while the question of Iran’s nuclear ambitions remains one that is still short of actually possessing the bomb.
Trackback by A Blog For All — 10.09.06 @ 9:44 am
North Korea to launch the nuclear weapons
I don’t really want to get into politics that much, but to follow up the latest news, North Korea has just tested its nuclear weapons today in its teritory. You probably do know about this already but if you do not, here is an article on this. Ma…
Trackback by The 15 dollar project blog — 10.09.06 @ 10:00 am
Bomb test
What a mess is the best description of all this. Sanctions aren’t going to work, and leaving Kim in power could destabilize the region by the subsequent arming of Japan which will certainly cause tensions. Most of the region still doesn’t forget what…
Trackback by The Florida Masochist — 10.09.06 @ 10:13 am
I agree. As I wrote here, the real goal is Taiwan and its independence.
Pingback by Toasted Bread — 10.09.06 @ 10:17 am
North Korea Successfully Test Nuke. The Results of Appeasement!
Well this is no surprise. Not even a shock to me. The USA offered appeasement deals and hoped they would not build a nuclear weapon. Some said don’t trust them, they’re no good. They were ignored. OK so now they have the nuke. I̵…
Trackback by Independent Conservative — 10.09.06 @ 10:22 am
I really don’t get it. No other superpower in the history of the world would have put up with what we put up with.
Let’s put some facts together:
1. Government has a duty to protect its citizens.
2. Because of world travel and trade, our moats no longer significantly limit contact with foreigners.
3. Horrible things happening throughout the world (nukes in the hands of nutjobs, famines, violent oppression by Muslims, etc) can significantly affect the US in terms of spread of disease or violence.
4. Spread of the principles of liberty can be seriously helped by (and may only really occur in concert with) the spread of Christianity.
The conclusion? We need to impose the Pax Americana for real instead of this hit-or-miss K-Mart bit we’re doing now. We don’t need to risk large numbers of troops either. We need to announce to the world that we will simply no longer allow the following (not an all-inclusive list):
1. nukes in anybody else’s hands unless we approve it
2. violence against citizens on a large scale (e.g. Rwanda, Sudan, fill-in-the-blank-of-wherever-Muslims-are-killing-everyone-else)
3. the wholesale teaching of children that the US, Israel, etc are bad, and that killing infidels is OK
Anyplace that’s not immediately down with this list (e.g. NK, Iran, most of the Muslim world including our ‘buddies’ the Saudis, etc) will then be notified that they have 2 weeks to enforce compliance or we’ll do it for them. If necessary, and with suitable advance warning to allow for evacuation, we nuke their capitol. When we invade, we don’t send large numbers of troops; we send Jr High principals, and county execs, and special forces. I suspect that they’ll be adequate to clean up the mess. If they’re shot at, we drop back 10 and lob a tactical on the location.
I predict it will take 1, maybe 2, nukes to garner abject surrender. It took 2 with the Japanese, but Muslims and Commies don’t have that ‘death before surrender’ bit; they honor superior firepower.
Yeah, yeah, I know; innocent citizens will die. They’re dying now.
What give us the right? See above; gov’t has a duty to protect citizens, and the wacko actions of Muslims and Commies are endangering our citizens unacceptably.
They’ll hate us? They hate us now. Do you really think the parents of the kids that will suddenly be living in a US protectorate a la Guam i/o the squalid dictatorship they’re in now will continue to hate us as we markedly improve their lives?
Now I’m no expert at either international relations or Biblical government theory, so I’m sure I’m missing something here. I know the political will to do this isn’t in place currently, but a large-scale attack (nuke, etc) might change that. So what’s wrong with the idea? Anyone?
Comment by Doc — 10.09.06 @ 10:31 am
I agree with you, however consider what it would be like to be one of the few who survive annihilation. I would not be fun living as a survivalist, always wondering about radiations levels of everything, and wondering what kinds of affects it was having on your body. I think the constant worry of this unseen danger would drive me crazy.
Comment by jim Stegman — 10.09.06 @ 10:59 am
4. is correct.
Taiwan is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And, China is using N. Korea to takeover Taiwan.
Ooops. As an errant missle, or two, hits Taiwan during a “test”.
Comment by Glamchild — 10.09.06 @ 11:24 am
Comment by Dan Hamilton — 10.09.06 @ 11:56 am
How Does This Happen
Iran is next. Maybe months, maybe years, but they’re next. And liberals will want to blame that on Bush too, even though they fought against everything he did to prevent it, including stopping the appointment of Bolton the U.N.
Trackback by Church and State — 10.09.06 @ 12:28 pm
La Shawn, I’ve been reading you for awhile and with every new post I read, I think, “That’s what I’ve always thought!” I don’t feel so much like the silent majority anymore. You’ve inspired me to start a blog myself.
And I totally agree - I’m much more worried about the cultural problems than a nuclear attack. Strange, isn’t it?
Comment by Abby — 10.09.06 @ 1:03 pm
There is plenty that can be done about both North Korea and Iraq. Even if their facilities are underground, we can keep them from coming out.
There is political gridlock in this country. It isn’t nice to nuke the nuke facilities of other countries. It isn’t nice to kill fundamentalist murderers first. Since we have nukes, how can we tell other countries that they can’t have nukes? All they need is a little chat time and some handouts. Nobody likes us and we need to go on a love blitz and get them all happy with us.
At one time, I really believed that GW Bush would take preemptive action to destroy these bee hives. But now it looks as if he has been captured by the State Department and fed a full dose of Albright and Powell.
If North Korea were to be thrown into chaos, the people would pour into China. Good. The North Korean military would fold faster than Saddam’s vaunted Republican Guards. The North Korean army is there for the food. Brain washed or not, once the “Dear Leader” is vaporized, the army is reduced to the level of the rest of the population which is eating grass to survive.
Comment by Heliotrope — 10.09.06 @ 1:25 pm
Wait a minute, wait a minute…. didn’t Clinton and Albright solve the North Korea problem back in the ’90s, with that “framework” of agreements with Kim Jong Mentally-Il? Sure they did, just like Chamberlain solved the Nazi problem. [insert rolling eyes here]
Comment by RedBeard — 10.09.06 @ 1:27 pm
There are some analysts reporting that the bomb was a dud in the 500 ton to 1-kiloton range.
Comment by jim Stegman — 10.09.06 @ 2:26 pm
Jim (#14),
A 4.6 on the Richter scale is a “dud”? Are these analysts legit?
Comment by SkyePuppy — 10.09.06 @ 3:14 pm
Defence Tech has some details. Wikipedia gives a small table which links the Richter Scale to bomb yield.
Comment by jim Stegman — 10.09.06 @ 3:23 pm
That is it. The new Lib talking point. It was faked. It wasn’t an A-Bomb it was just 550 tons of explosive. Kim is just trying to fool us and look dumb Bush is buying it.
Look to see it on the MSM every where.
Comment by Dan Hamilton — 10.09.06 @ 5:07 pm
Pay no attention to the widdle man behind the curtain. If only it were so.
China and Russia have nutured this runt as a proxy for hegemony in the Far East. Taiwan is but one object of desire. They’ll surely reap the whirlwind as the power of balance changes for the worse in their eyes. Do they really think that Japan will stay the course on passive defenses?
Whether they acknowledge it or not, NK gives Japan and several other countries, the pretext for developing 1st strike capabilities against NK. The same capabilities that will also enable them to bloddy China/Russia’s nose as well if need be. It would behoove them to concentrate on expanding personal freedoms & rights via rule of law, instead of perpetual ‘manhood’ envy.
At the same time, it’s rather ironic that the runt keeps shooting off one dud after another. If that test explosion was truly a fission dud, rather than a ‘rope-a-dope’, then potential clients really have to wonder about the capabilities of the NoKo so-called scientists & expertise.
On a conspiratorial level, what if the rockets & nuke tech and everything else was really sourced from China — as in NoKo has no homegrown talent? Is NoKo just a ‘plausible-deniable’ stooge for testing Chinese tech? After all, where did the guidance system for the rockets come from?
To wit, there’s no point in letting a rocket complete its test profile, if within minutes of launch, the telemetry confirms the trajectory and other key metrics. Better to self-destruct over home-turf, than risk the wreckage falling into US hands for forensic testing and determining the source of the tech.
Then again, it’s all speculation since our intelligence capabilities, particularly HUMINT (human sourced intelligence), have been so gutted by the Dem Church committee and subsequent hostility by the libs, it’ll take years before we’ll ever get any measure of confidence in our intel.
Comment by Andy — 10.09.06 @ 5:20 pm
I thought that the Axis of Evil was an evil neocon plot. The MSM said so anyway.
Comment by Mwalimu Daudi — 10.09.06 @ 6:01 pm
K. Peninsula’s Ring of Fire…
Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, what would be the further impact placed upon this region, in the event of accidental launchings, or hushing the effects of a underground test accident?
Trackback by Mensa Barbie Welcomes You — 10.09.06 @ 7:48 pm
So far all we have evidence of is that there was an underground explosion.
Only the Russians are saying that it equaled “between 5 and 15 kilotons”.
Other sources are saying it looks to have been more like 1 kiloton or so.
Nobody has mentioned logging an EMP event either.
However, in a few more hours the initial analysis of seismic data from around the world should be able to tell us if this event was nuclear derived — or not. There is a problem in that the explosion was so small that background noise may make the analysis Mich more difficult, though. But the Japanese already have planes taking samples over the Sea of Japan, looking for the telltale increases in radiation that must be there if a nuke went off. Even if it was underground.
This very well could be nothing more than conventional explosives set off in an attempt to feign a successful nuclear device test.
And it may not be subterfuge of the type intended to fool other countries, in a dictatorship where the dictator also masquerades as a god, the scientists may well have good reason to let the old dog eater have a boom happen when he orders one.
They tried this trick once before in the past, it was proven to be nothing more than conventional explosives.
Even if it turns out to have been a real fissile chain reaction (nuclear explosion), one kiloton would be even less than a firecracker when compared to the nuclear firepower of the US’ “Arsenal of Democracy”. A while back the Defense Department ordered 50 land-based ICBMs of the MX class taken offline in order to save money and put it to good use in other places due to the present war efforts.
That left us with “only” 450 ICBMs in the hole and ready to go. Which ones are multiple-warhead and which are single is classified information.
And that does not include our Navy’s “boomers” — the nuclear submarine fleet — nor the nuclear bombs that our Air Force has.
Perspective.
Comment by The Machine — 10.09.06 @ 9:10 pm
Even if it was a hoax, you shouldn’t be allowed to threaten a whole Continent and set the world on edge.
Ping-pong diplomacy hasn’t amounted to much, if this is how it’s gonna be from now on.
Comment by Glamchild — 10.09.06 @ 10:41 pm
Global fury at N Korea nuclear test claim
The major powers united in their condemnation of North Korea’s claim to have tested a nuclear weapon
Trackback by Unpartisan.com — 10.10.06 @ 2:38 am
Cultural decline is present every day, a nuclear threat is not as concrete or immediate.
Comment by mj — 10.10.06 @ 9:13 am
>>Why would NK benefit? Bi-lateral discussion,needs being met and not just with the US. Good question. Why else?>>
Advertising. NK needs a cash inflow. They have no real product, but if they have nuclear capability, there are numerous terrorists that have money to burn and will pay for the product. For two weeks or so, the whole world focussed on NK and its test. Assuming that it was a valid test, and not just a fake, every terrorist in the world now knows that NK has a nuclear weapon and also knows it’s going to be for sale. It should be easier for us to control NK’s borders than our own…
China doesn’t feel threatened. There must be a reason - and I suspect that it’s because they know Kim doesn’t really plan on using that bomb.
Comment by suek — 10.10.06 @ 11:20 am
Check this article out…from American Thinker…
http://tinyurl.com/ogftb
Comment by suek — 10.10.06 @ 12:06 pm
Hi La Shawn,
I’m compiling the largest roundup in the Blogosphere on the North Korean Nuclear test and I added your comments/link to the post:
http://jarrarsupariver.blogspot.com/2006/10/north-korea-goes-nuclear-largest_09.html
Thanks very much.
Mister Ghost
Comment by Mister Ghost — 10.10.06 @ 1:14 pm
Honestly. Let’s let japan and south korea handle this one. We should have pulled our troops out of south korea at the end of the cold war.
We are being used and sucked dry by freeloading “democracies” who hide behind our protection and S–t on us all day long.
north korea is not our problem; it is japan’s problem. and iran is not our problem; it is isreal’s problem.
W is a moron. and he just keeps taking the bait.
Comment by BT — 10.10.06 @ 1:26 pm
Jim (#14/16),
Thanks for the info! That Wikipedia chart is perfect.
I’ll hold my tongue now…
Comment by SkyePuppy — 10.10.06 @ 3:15 pm
We can not let Japan and South Korea handle this one.
We wrote the rules for Japan at the end of WWII. They have nearly no military ability in exchange for our heavy military presence and defensive shield.
South Korea also has been allowed to develop its economy with minimal defense expense as we also provide their military shield.
The enmity between China and Japan is palpable. It is hard for the Chinese to forget how the Japanese brutalized them. Add to this mix the strong belief in Mainland China that Taiwan is not a legitimate separate country.
China supports North Korea to the extent that it can keep their starving masses from crossing Yalu River and flooding China with starving peasants added to its own peasant masses.
Our best hope is that Kim Ill Maniac will crumble under his own regime. We can buy the fidelity of the rest of the country with food aid and infrastructure improvement in the fabled New York minute.
A major part of the equation, is to get China to allow it to happen. Their price, undoubtedly, is Taiwan and a promise to keep Japan from rearming.
Comment by Heliotrope — 10.11.06 @ 12:32 pm
La Shawn as you know I have a front row seat here in Seoul, so far it’s business as usual. There is a lot of doubt as to if the little Human Chia Pet really set off a nuke. So the defacation has not hit the ventilation just yet.
Comment by Warrior Nurse — 10.12.06 @ 7:21 am
Was this a real nuclear test? It’s yield was ridiculously low and, although everyone on both sides is acting like it was, I for one cannot discount that they just packed several hundred tons of explosive in the hole to get attention (which they did).
Comment by Mike O — 10.13.06 @ 9:40 am