If only I'd be reasonable and see things your way, huh?
Well, you're the one who has to live with trying to explain to your children/grandchildren why you were unwilling to overthrow Saddam before he could build a nuclear shield and present himself as a new Arab "Saladin"...
That is if they don't wind up dying fighting the eventual war that will result if millions of Arabs fall under the imperial influence of Saddam and his family.
I mean.. why does Saddam need Nuclear weapons?? I could care less why he "thinks" he needs them. The reality is that it's been 12 years and we haven't invaded him or overthrown him.
Can you now put yourself into the USSR's place and see why they felt they must develop nukes as well?
Put myself in Stalin and Khruschev's place?? Only if I become a paranoid delusional...
They developed nukes because they knew they could not be a world power without them. They knew they would not be able to consolidate their East European gains, to include East Germany and Berlin, without them. To occupy Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary and turn them into Marxist buffer states.
Were Kim Jong Il in power in Iraq, I would REALLY be scared. But he's not. He's stuck on a peninsula facing a powerful army in the south, with China to the north. His having nuclear weapons is pretty useless, unless he opts for a first strike. He cannot really intimidate any of his neighbors or unify them under his regime.
But Saddam CAN. Those regional governments are so fragile that there is little chance they could fend off Iraqi subversion as they hid behind their nuclear shield. And since a large quantity of the world's oil comes from that region, that would put him in overall control of the destiny of much of the US, Asia, and Europe's economic future...
The French think they have Saddam under control, but I don't see that. He's merely using them to get what he wants. Because a personality such as his knows that eventually he must expand, or face growing dissension and rivalty from within.
So it's wrong to compare N. Korea to Iraq. There is little of strategic value in N. Korea. And there is quite a few options that don't involve the US invading them which have yet to be explored. It all kind of depends on what will motivate Bejing to control their unruly client state.
Hawk |
