As if the entire Iraq adventure weren’t enough of a fiasco, word comes that North Korea has successfully tested its first nuclear weapon. This comes while the US is tied down militarily in Iraq and therefore unable to exert any kind of significant pressure.
So instead of focusing on North Korea that was known to be close to nuclear capability–a country with plenty of incentive to sell weapons to terrorists because of its impoverishment–the Bush administration chose to make up Iraqi WMD evidence, lie to the public, and take down a regime that posed no threat to the United States.
The test alters the balance of power in northeast Asia and touches off grave new concerns about the proliferation of refined nuclear material or devices to other rogue states or terrorist groups. North Korea, a secretive communist state which strictly limits all contact with the outside world, already generates tens of millions of dollars a year through its thriving underground sales of missiles and other sophisticated weaponry to nations including Iran and Syria.
Now we’re stuck with a nuclear North Korea, and it is highly unlikely they will ever give up their new weapon.
Feel safer yet?
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