What Has Bush Done...

[jayfish]

form this;

Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.

Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections -- then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

To This;


?


He let this happen:

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/24/nkorea.us.nukes/

North Korea has alarmed the world community by beginning to remove International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring equipment at a nuclear reactor that is able to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

He let this happen:

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/27/nkorea.expulsions/

PYONGYANG, North Korea (CNN) -- North Korea said Friday it has decided to expel International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who have been monitoring its frozen nuclear facilities.

It also told the IAEA that it will resume reprocessing spent fuel rods at its plant, a facility capable of making weapons-grade plutonium.

He let this happen:

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/213190.htm

North Korea has restarted a nuclear reactor at its controversial Yongbyon complex in another significant step toward making new nuclear weapons, US officials said Wednesday.

He let this happen:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nuke-plutonium.htm

A story in the New York Times on July 20, 2003 reported that US intelligence officials believe that North Korea may have a second facility that could produce weapons-grade plutonium. The second facility is believed to be buried underground at an unknown location. The story, "North Korea Hides New Nuclear Site, Evidence Suggests" by David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker New York Times reported that sensors on North Korea's borders have begun to detect elevated levels of krypton-85, a gas emitted as spent fuel is converted into plutonium. T

He let this happen:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nuke-plutonium.htm

The September 1, 2003 edition of Jane's Intelligence Review reports that the director of the the ROK's National Intelligence Service stated to the National Assembly in early July 2003 that North Korea had conducted 70 high-explosive tests at Yondok, 40km northwest of Yongbyon. Such high explosives could be used in plutonium device by compressing the plutonium core to create a nuclear explosion.

He let this happen:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nuke-plutonium.htm

On 02 October 2003 North Korea said it had reprocessed eight thousand nuclear fuel rods and plutonium extracted from them could be used to strengthen its "nuclear deterrent force." A statement from the North Korean foreign ministry carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said that North Korea is manufacturing nuclear bombs with the material siphoned off from reprocessing eight thousand spent nuclear fuel rods.

But most of all, he used up our conventional military deterrent buy invading and occupying the only country on that list that had no chance of developing nuclear weapons. Pretty damning, don't ya think?

Jay

[Zangal]

1. military strength

Any idea how many/much of our military strength and troops have been moved from SK to Iraq/Afghanistan?

I seem to recall off the top of my head that there has been around 35k US Troops there.
Or is that part of a larger total of UN troops?

[jayfish]

2. Here's A Little:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120187,00.html

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is moving 3,600 U.S. soldiers from bases in South Korea (search) to the conflict in Iraq (search) this summer, possibly marking a permanent reduction in the size of the American military force that has helped deter war on the Korean Peninsula for the past half-century.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-06-05-us-troops-korea_x.htm

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States and South Korea agreed Thursday to withdraw U.S. troops from the tense Demilitarized Zone separating South Korea from communist North Korea.

The troops will be moved farther south, a joint statement said after two days of talks. The redeployment will remove U.S. military bases from the Korean front line for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Also, the 35,000 that were there were more of a trip-wire than a true deterrent force. The real deterrent was that promise of a massive conventional response from The US followed by a push to retake the peninsula.

Jay

[bridgit]

3. welcome to du, Zangal...

:toast:

[bridgit]

4. it has all been a lie, from the very beginning...

[jayfish]

6. Unfortunately, It Looks Like It's Real.-NT-

Jay

[bridgit]

9. not my point, where i come from lies that speak to the truth of hidden...

character turn out to be truer than even you might imagine

[jayfish]

10. My Bad.

There were a couple of different ways to read your post. I responded to the wrong read.

Jay

[driver8]

5. There's no oil in N. Korea...what do you expect him to do...invade?

He saves the "invasions" for those who really deserve it -- you know, the countries sitting on huge supplies of oil.

Not that I'm saying that the "war" with Iraq has anything to do with oil. Oh fuck it...I guess that is exactly what I'm saying.

[yurbud]

8. yep, oil execs & stooges in White House wanting trillions worth of oil?

Definitely a conspiracy theory. They really wanted to spread democracy and civil rights--just like they are doing here.

[lostnotforgotten]

7. You Can't Have A Bogeyman Without Bogey

Else the Freepers would have nothing to fear.

[vixengrl]

11. We've got a missle crisis--

but this guy in the White House, he's no JFK. A dictator with no love for the US has the capacity to make a strike at us, albeit a limited one, and the last damn nuclear strategy we had in place was MAD--

And our leader might be a little "mad" himself.

The Cold War had some cobwebs on by the time I was growing up, but I think most of us recall that kind of nuclear paranoia--the possibility of actual world-death being the result of unresolved and maybe irresolvable political and diplomatic break-down. The Cold War ended, and maybe we forgot, to a degree, because that kind of fear is is unproductive--except maybe of more fear.

But now we, thanks to the war on terror, are in the middle of a "hot" war already. The Bushies have named North Korea as part of the Axis of Evil--but I don't think they have a clue what to do with it. They want to pose as hardliners--great, but posing doesn't do anything, and their answer to Iraq, and I guess we can already smell it coming--to Iran, is force.

That's a dark thing to reflect on. A darker thing is that there are people who kind of like the thrill-ride to Armegeddon, and still others who couldn't bear the thought of "changing horses in midstream"--there are going to be some people who will once again chime, "You can't criticize the President at a moment like this." But there are just *going* to be moments like this with these guys in charge--their transformative approach to foreign policy seems to demand it, and I think for Cheney, especially, their political approach demands it. People have to wake up to that: these guys aren't *safe*. These are the ones who are taking risks that can have disastrous results. The bullying line that Democrats are appeasers is a sham, but it has been an effective one, and every day that someone doesn't call them on the big lie that they know what they're doing, I think they put us in deeper.

(Or that's my "been-up-too-late, burnt black coffee-bitter take" on it.)

[Gregorian]

12. Is Bush an enemy combatant?

He may have even let 9/11 happen.

[Amonester]

13. Yes, and what's even more damning: he (and them) LIED about

it just to scare everybody (except DU and 10% US) for the PNAC "inner-circle" to get an awful lot richer than they already were. :grr:

Re: "he used up our conventional military deterrent buy invading and occupying the only country on that list that had no chance of developing nuclear weapons."

[spanone]

14. Katrina Foreign Policy

Thru and thru