ICBM Tests For Us? Sure! North Korea? Hell No!

[DistressedAmerican]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13952159/

U.S. Successfully Completes Missile Test

Updated: 8:49 a.m. ET July 20, 2006
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - The Air Force successfully launched an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile early Thursday.

The Minuteman III dummy warheads were fired at 3:14 a.m. and traveled about 4,200 miles before hitting a water target in the Marshall Islands.

The launch was delayed by a day because of a power outage at a radar facility that handles flights in and out of Southern California. The purpose is to test the defense system's reliability and accuracy.

Earlier this month, North Korea shook up the world by firing several missiles into the Sea of Japan, including a failed long-range missile.




Funny. Bush's provocations go completely unnoticed. No "shaking up the world" here!:freak:

[theoldman]

1. One of the problems with the Korean missiles is that they pass

over Japan. Our missiles pass over water.

[acmejack]

2. If you consider The Hawaiian Islands water

Kauai is part of the test range as is Kwajelien which is part of the Marshall Islands. Guess it is all a matter of perception.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/pmrf.htm

[Redstone]

3. Because, as bad as we may be, we're not CLOSE to as bad as they are.

Pretty simple.

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. How many thousands of Iraqis has North Korea killed recently?

[Dark]

5. Are you seriously comparing North Korea to the U.S.? n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Yeah.

[Dark]

20. Really? How the hell are the two even remotely alike? n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. How many people in the US are in forced-labour camps?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Couldn't tell you.

But its prisons ain't exactly on the up and up. Especially the ones we've got overseas.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. You obviously have a total lack of perspective.

I suggest you try reading this (referenced and sourced summary of human rights and civil liberties situation in N. Korea). The US is a long way from perfect, but only someone who was completely delusional could say that this country is in any way comparable to the brutal totalitarianism that exists under Kim Jong-il's Stalinist rule.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. I never said it was a fun place to be.

Are you aware that the U.S. has recently slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, opened up torture chambers and rape rooms, and is dropping white phosphorous on people?

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. Yes, I'm aware of that...

and I never SAID that I agreed in any way with our actions in Iraq--as far as I'm concerned, what the US is doing in Iraq is equal parts tragedy and farce. But much as I personally detest it, as wrong as I think it is, it still isn't comparable to what the government of North Korea does to its own citizens as a matter of course.

Something like TWO MILLION PEOPLE have died of starvation in North Korea over the past decade, because of a combination of corrupt profiteering (steep food prices, and rationing based on rank within the Communist Party) and incompetence; minor acts of dissidence and misdemeanour-level crimes earn sentencing to a forced-labour camp or execution (people were actually sent to camps after being judged to not be grieving enough after Kim il-Sung died) where they can expect to be, at best, tortured, and at worst used as subjects in tests of the effects of chemical and biological weapons on humans; physically disabled infants are put to death immediately after birth--can you honestly say that the US is as bad?

I'm certainly not trying to defend the actions of the US in Iraq. But it's utterly foolish to argue that there's any equivalence between the (admittedly terrible) results of a military action undertaken (however wrongly) with the support of at least some of the international community, and the actions of a brutal and oppressive totalitarian regime.

When I find myself being dragged off to a gulag and tortured for my politics, THEN I'll agree with you that the US is morally equivalent to North Korea. But not until then.

[Redstone]

13. Don't bother arguing. He just likes to be an asshole.

Always being contrary just to get some attention.

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. There's the pot calling the kettle black.

Am I supposed to believe you really thought I was defending North Korea? Because I don't.

[Redstone]

16. Then why post just to cause trouble?

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Redstone...

I'm the one who's actually discussing the OP.

What are you doing?

[Redstone]

21. Don't hand me that bullshit. You made those posts just to annoy people

("thanks for playing")

I'll post my opinions, true ones even if they're unpopular, and defend them, but I don't post an opinion that I don't really have, just to piss people off.

But that's just me.

Have fun with your games; I'm not playing them anymore.

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. "Oh, I get it. They're just nice guys. Maybe just misunderstood."

"but I don't post an opinion that I don't really have, just to piss people off."

See, I could believe two different things. I could believe that you just contradicted yourself. Or I could believe that you were sincere when you wrote that first quote.

But, Redstone, I respect you too much to believe that you were sincere when you wrote that first quote.

To the OP: Yeah, pretty hypocritical, isn't it?

[Redstone]

11. Oh, I get it. They're just nice guys. Maybe just misunderstood.

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Thanks for playing.

:hi:

[Redstone]

15. No. I'm not playing anymore. You're annoying when you do this.

Redstone

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. You really haven't addressed anything have you?

North Korea has a miserable domestic policy. The United States has a miserable foreign policy. So why should we be testing ballistic missles? I mean other than this phony patriotic "hoo-ra we're number one" bullshit?

[Nutmegger]

19. Shall I grab the party balloons and confetti?

:woohoo: