CBS News: Iran, North Korea, Iran, North Korea. Be afraid. Really afraid.

[Karmadillo]

NUKES!!!! Be afraid. Or else. North Koreans were probably hoping for a different outcome, but now that the President has been "re-elected", they'll have to deal with it. NUKES!!!! Be afraid. You may die any minute unless our Leader saves us. Pray for him. Now. Please.

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. One of my favorite "what ifs" is

What if Nixon was president during the Cuban Missile Crisis...My thoughts are, probably all dead. It's frightening because we could have another crisis like this and we have Dipshit McWarpig as a president

[BlueJazz]

2. I'm sure our intelligent, Fearless Leader will have the

....situation under control... just as soon as he stops reading "My Pet Goat".

[paula777]

10. Well that may take a while ....

he's not much of a reader

[KlatooBNikto]

16. He is going to follow the white line.

[The Spirit of JFK]

3. We won't go into North Korea

There is too much risk....they have a TON of weapons, a large army, and China would get really really pissed and would have to intervene.

Iran, though...is totally fair game.

[Union Thug]

11. This was my thought too... China has a large army, and they

are much better prepared to fight than Saddam's little tin soldier dog and pony show. And, with the US military already stretched, knowingling sucking this massive giant into the fray is not a good thing.

Further, if you suck China in, you've also got their border partner: Russia. Who knows what Pooti-poot would do in such a situation. I don't pretend to be able to speculate, but the world is already on the brink of chaos, and hell, with the last remaining superpower stretched so unbearably thin between Iraq, N.Korea and potentially china, what a fantastic opportunity for some other relatively powerful nation to jump in and knock the bully down a notch.

But really, I don't know. It's a mess and that's about as far as I care to venture.

[The Spirit of JFK]

14. Bush wants easy wins...

Relatively speaking, of course.

The American people could be fooled again on Iran....another Arab nuclear threat harboring the terrorists. It's a natural progression. And more oil. And the troops are aleady next door.

North Korea would actually be an easier justification.....they HAVE nukes, or as close to it as you can without having them. Their leader is insane....and desperate. The country is literally starving and he probably IS likely to do anything for his country.

[Gyre]

17. You are right on!

Panama, Grenada, Haiti (by proxy). Venzuela proved to be too tough a nut to crack by proxy. Too of those were "splendid little wars" for limited strategic gain. Unlike them, Iran and NK are REAL problems. Particularly, with our army tied up destroying Iraq.

My guess is that the current administration is going to adopt the coward's route and do absolutely nothing except make bellicose statements. That would be true to their unstated but demonstrated intention of destroying this country by a thousand cuts.

Gyre

[chicagiana]

26. I really don't think Iran is a problem ...

They are a state ready to turn the corner into Democracy. I don't think it's a problem if they build nuclear weaponry. In fact, to me it ASSURES that we won't invade!!!

We should have opened relations with Iran a LONG time ago. But some wounds take a while to heal I guess. They held some Americans hostage for quite some time. They didn't harm a SINGLE one!!!

It's a shame that our nation cannot see the great harm they did on Iran by installing and supporting the Shaw!!! And it's absolutely AMAZING to me that they retorted with non-lethal imprisonment!!!

We bitched about hostage taking in the 80s. Well, we weren't listening. And now they're taking heads!!!

So the question for us is how many dead Americans is it going to take before we "get it" as a culture. The conservatives NEVER "got it" with regards to Vietnam. They believed they could have one till the very last day. Victory was always only months away.

Will they FINALLY get it when a war concieved and executed by a conservative is prosecuted 100% and STILL doesn't return any results??? Will they FINALLY get that we cannot IMPOSE a way of life on a foreign land???

The irony is that the conservative are pretty anti-foreigner. And they are VERY uptite any time someone suggests that we should give the slightest bit of oversight to the UN. They're foreigners, they have no business meddling in OUR affairs. At what point do they apply the same standards to themselves as they would the rest of the world!!!!

[anakie]

19. I know you probably know

but Iranian are NOT Arabs. They are Persian and have a different culture and language. In the same way that Afghans are Arabs either.

But given the general laziness and lack of willingness to learn anything about the rest of the world by the majority of the American population it is easier to label anyone over there as A-rabs.

I would be willing to bet that if you went out to any mall with a map of the world and ask 10 people to point out where Iraq is you would be lucky to get 5 people with the correct answer. Just MHO.

[Minstrel Boy]

21. I agree, but the unfortunate thing is the easiest "win"

for the US is to deploy its strategic arsenal, which has not been taxed by Iraq.

North Korea needn't be occupied to be "taken out," as they say.

[The Spirit of JFK]

22. Nothing to gain by taking out North Korea

China would be dragged into it.

North Korea is all about posturing...making sure we have a strong defense and then to use that to go after "other terrorist regimes". North Korea will simply be contained...

If we even started moving our strategic arsenal around...there would be serious repercussions. And that could cause Kim Jong...who is playing with about 40 cards and a kazoo to begin with....to do something kooky for sure.

[chicagiana]

25. Iraq is a tea party compared to Iran ...

If they're going to Iran, They'd better pre-order a couple hundred thousand body bags for American soliders!!!

Iran is more populous, they have a strong Army that wasn't subjected to bombing and sactions for ten years. They are ethnically cohesive unlike Iraq.

Going to Iran will start WW3 as the Arabs will NOT tolerate Americans invading yet another Islamic nation.

[htuttle]

18. Don't be too sure about Iran being 'fair game' anymore

They just signed a huge oil production deal with China. I don't imagine China would appreciate us stealing 'their' oil. Given Iran's position, I wouldn't be surprised if they got some security guarantees from China as part of the deal.

[The Spirit of JFK]

20. The US would probably question the legality of the deal

And there has been a movement for sanctions...which could effectively neuter that deal.

[nostamj]

4. and don't forget....

OBL shipping a nuke thru Mexico and his nuke fatwah.

they're ramping up the NUKE threat now, and you KNOW that the chimp wants to take the first shot....

[spanone]

5. So, we're supposed to believe Colin Powell Again????

Bwahahahahahahahahah. CNN has a story that his sources are in question. These people know just how fucking stoopid the American people are.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/19/powell.iran/index.html

[louis-t]

7. I've been wanting to post this all day...

And just who in the world is going to believe Powell THIS TIME?

[rooboy]

6. Nothing to be afraid of - you've got interceptor missiles now !!! n/t

[louis-t]

8. And mini-nukes

[Stinky The Clown]

9. This is just a lot of yakking

There's n way even someone as stoopit as Chimpus Kahn will go to Iran or North Korea. He has NO military resources to spare. Hell, even if we WERE in some imminent danger, there's no way to see how he could react militarily at all.

Da boy dun shot hiz wad.

[DireStrike]

12. Chimp is a bully - he only picks on those weaker.

[PlanetBev]

15. There's no way we'd go into North Korea

Why? Because they have WMD's and a million man army. Have you every seen the North Korean army march by on your television? Let me assure you, they'd kick our ass. I think that one thing this country has learned is that you should never fuck with an Asian army. They are very disciplined and will fight down to the last man. If we didn't drop an A-bomb on the Japanese, they would never have given up, Korea was a draw and the Vietnamese cleaned our clocks.

We only attack countries with no WMD and no armies.

[DrWeird]

23. You're misunderestimating Bush.

We'll be at war with France before he's through.

[AndyTiedye]

13. What Does Chimpie Care? NK's Missiles Can Only Hit the West Coast!

Chimpie doesn't care about NK, their missiles can only hit the
blue states on the west coast.
:scared::nuke::scared:

[chicagiana]

24. N Korea is a setup!!!!

China is funneling all that technology to N Korea. The reason is to create a "need" for China in the absence of the Soviet Union. This keeps the trade flood gates open.

The Chinese could have squished the North Koreans ANY time they wanted!!!

[necso]

27. Start of the nex-gen, pre-war propaganda?

It is important to remember that facts and reason have no place in neo-con "thinking". And with that pesky Powell soon to be out of the way, factual information held closer than ever, flunkies all around, and the screws tightened on all government agencies, there will be few informed voices to the contrary... And what chance is there that the media would make a big deal of it, even if there were?

The neo-cons have not forgotten their desires to "democratize" Iran (you know, like Iraq) and "take care of" North Korea. And while out and out invasions will be hard to pull off (without another "major incident" to provide justification for restarting the draft, etc), I can easily believe that "limited strategic" strikes will be ordered -- in either or both cases.

These are not people to worry about consequences or aftermaths -- or reality.