| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
 Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:25 am Post subject: And so it ends...not with a bang...but a whimper.... |
 |
|
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. The immortal T.S. Elliot, 1925.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/03/north.korea.ap/index.html
During my bachelor degree years, I used to have to write many essays. Call me cheesy, but I loved incorporating famous quotes into my writings. This quote by T.S. Elliot must be one of my favorites. I feel it fit to open with it. Please.....take a step back.......think.........then respond to the question that is about to be presented before you:
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. The immortal T.S. Elliot, 1925. How is one to correlate this meaning with today's happenings? Are the substanceless threats or the abounding comments regarding the inevitability of war to be taken seriously? Or do we, the wordly inhabitants of this small island, treat these remarks as outcries by a forlorned nation; one that is so yearning for help that to admit the very possibility of assistance being needed is to admit defeat? The idea of rout (renounced by the very people asking for help, not an option of choice, rather by force from the powers that be) being met with hostile, reckless, and disasterous decisions would eventually lead to nuclear holocaust.
Is this what we are left with? Is there any other nuclear deterrent that may prove useful in negotiations? More money? More food? If so, when does it stop? When does one draw a line that is unsurpassable? Is that line to be treated as a metaphor? Is it war that looms, in all its' demented glory, just over that line? Has N. Korea finally reached el punto cuando ya no pueden regresar?
Last edited by cubanlord on Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
I don't think Bukhan will do anything stupid. The americans could take out their taepodong with a homing pigeon.
As for their ability to annihilate the US, it'd be pretty hard considering they'd be razed to ashes before you could say kimchi.
No..its just more pathetic bluster in an effort to get attention and food aid. Wher'd they get this nuclear war idea from? TV? I doubt they even know how to split peas, never mind atoms.
Its the korean urge to be taken seriously by the outside world, gone mad. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
animalbirdfish
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
I don't think Bukhan will do anything stupid. The americans could take out their taepodong with a homing pigeon.
|
Seems they've done something stupid. No homing pigeons necessary, though, as the missiles evidently crashed into the Sea of Ja...uh, the East Sea.
Appropriately enough, after the Taepodong crashed into the sea, they apparently fired - and I'm not making this up - a No Dong missile.
From Yahoo News:
North Korea Fires Long Range Missile |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| animalbirdfish wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
I don't think Bukhan will do anything stupid. The americans could take out their taepodong with a homing pigeon.
|
Seems they've done something stupid. No homing pigeons necessary, though, as the missiles evidently crashed into the Sea of Ja...uh, the East Sea.
Appropriately enough, after the Taepodong crashed into the sea, they apparently fired - and I'm not making this up - a No Dong missile.
From Yahoo News:
North Korea Fires Long Range Missile |
Who called it?  And so it begins... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
I don't think Bukhan will do anything stupid. The americans could take out their taepodong with a homing pigeon.
As for their ability to annihilate the US, it'd be pretty hard considering they'd be razed to ashes before you could say kimchi.
No..its just more pathetic bluster in an effort to get attention and food aid. Wher'd they get this nuclear war idea from? TV? I doubt they even know how to split peas, never mind atoms.
Its the korean urge to be taken seriously by the outside world, gone mad. |
I don't think a clear thinking America would find itself at immediate liberty to reduce North Korea to a nuclear sheet of glass. Consider what one soviet reactor melt down did to western europe. The environmental damage to major economies like South Korea, Japan, and China ... not to mention the Russian oil industry in the area ... it would be a huge disaster and hurt America as much as losing, say, Seattle.
This is probably the justification for a rogue nation missile shield. America can't employ a MAD mentality when dealing with such a nation. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 6:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds.....
They are most likely testing the "range" of the missles. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
| cubanlord wrote: |
| Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds..... . |
As I said before. It was programmed to stop firing and drop harmlessly into the sea... they're not mindless enough to have actually launched it at Japan or the US.
The media reported it as a "failiure" to poor scorn on NK. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Barking Mad Lord Snapcase
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
| The media reported it as a "failiure" to poor scorn on NK. |
How dare they insult the Dear Leader's Juche Paradise!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
| cubanlord wrote: |
| Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds..... . |
As I said before. It was programmed to stop firing and drop harmlessly into the sea... they're not mindless enough to have actually launched it at Japan or the US.
The media reported it as a "failiure" to poor scorn on NK. |
What do you think would happen if N.K. decided to crash one just 600 miles away from California or alaska? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:41 am Post subject: |
|
|
| cubanlord wrote: |
Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds.....
They are most likely testing the "range" of the missles. |
You're such a noob!!! 
Seriously, it's a noob response to the situation. In 1993/4, we really did come close - apparently days - from some sort of militart conflict. You could feel it. Since then NK has shifted into pure survival mode. That's the big difference. Back then, NK was considered a serious threat. the elder Kim was a power-mad fellow. Death and destruction were worth the cost to him.
After his death, the people in high places were somewhat replaced with moderates, along with Kim the younger, who seems to have little interest in anything more than survival.
NK knows its survival depends on a very fine balance: keeping the forces around them off-balance while seeming enough of a threat to get enough concessions to keep the broken system going. (Just look at what happened to Cuba without the support of the USSR.)
No, they're into survival almost exclusively, I'd say.
As for the missiles, I guarantee you the last five were unplanned. When the dud misfired, they blasted off the others to assuage their egos and maintain their bluster, nothing more. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
EFLtrainer
Joined: 04 May 2005
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
| cubanlord wrote: |
| Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds..... . |
As I said before. It was programmed to stop firing and drop harmlessly into the sea... they're not mindless enough to have actually launched it at Japan or the US.
The media reported it as a "failiure" to poor scorn on NK. |
Don't think so, but possible. But, it would be much less risky, and far easier, to drop it in the big ol' Pacific than to try to time it just right to drop it in the relatively narrow East Sea of Japan. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
NAVFC
Joined: 10 May 2006
|
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: ? |
|
|
| Junior wrote: |
| cubanlord wrote: |
| Am I the only one thinking....where was the ICBM going if it hadn't malfunctioned after 42 seconds..... . |
As I said before. It was programmed to stop firing and drop harmlessly into the sea... they're not mindless enough to have actually launched it at Japan or the US.
The media reported it as a "failiure" to poor scorn on NK. |
how do you know? They have launched a missile over JP before. It wasn't programmed to drop. That would be a watseful test of a ICBM. You wouldn't learn anything abpout range or more importanly, the accuracy of your fire control systems. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
