Thursday, July 06, 2006

North Korea Threatens Canada, Apparently

I don't understand why politicans have to use the most outlandish possibilities to argue a point, when much more sound logic is readily available. Case in point, the Bush/Harper lovefest:
"The fact that (North Korea) is prepared to arm itself and prepared to threaten to use such armaments ... is something that we should be gravely concerned about," Harper said at a joint White House news conference with Bush on the president's 60th birthday.

"Missiles that are fired in the direction of the United States constitute a threat to Canada."

Bush had earlier suggested a hypothetical scenario in which a North Korean missile fired at the U.S. might go astray and land in Canada.

"(North Korea) could be seemingly firing a missile at the United States - this is all speculation - that could be headed toward the northwest of our country and it wouldn't take much for it to get off course," Bush said.

Almost everyone agrees that North Korea constitutes a threat that needs to be addressed. Had Harper simply argued why the world community must deal with this rogue nation, I'm sure most would find little criticism with that logic. However, for Bush and Harper to use a stray missile as legitimate reason for Canadian concern, only serves to sensationalize the entire threat. Once again, paranoid diplomacy seems to be the preferred route for the Bush administration, even when cold reality is at their disposal.

Someone should inform our Prime Minister, that when our neighbour starts an unprovoked war that alienates much of the world and fans the flames of extremism, it too "constitutes a threat to Canada".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BE AFRAID! CRAZY FOREIGNERS HATE OUR FREEDOM AND WANT TO STEAL OUR WOMEN!. The other thing Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum failed to mention is that North Korea's Nuke program is a Bush Frankenstein monster in the first place.

The BBC's Greg Palast: "George Bush is upset, distraught, that North Korea has fired a missile that could reach Alaska — carrying a nuclear warhead. Well, Mr. President, you have only yourself to blame.

"In case you can’t recall, your intelligence chiefs ordered US agents to curb their investigation of A.Q. Khan, head of Pakistan’s bomb-building program. There was mounting evidence Khan was selling his nuclear and missile material technology to Libya and North Korea. The reason for the spike order, the 'back off' directive, was that the investigators had tracked the source of funds for Mr. Khans flea market in fissile material to Saudi Arabia. Apparently, Team Bush did not want to make the Saudi’s uncomfortable by exposing their payments to Khan."

It's just all so convenient.

Steve V said...

"North Korea's Nuke program is a Bush Frankenstein monster in the first place."

Calling out North Korea as part of the "axis of evil" was a major setback for diplomacy.

lecentre said...

1) I'm not in agreement about the iraq war criticisms, but you make an excellent point generally that they could just use normal facts to argue their points, rather than stand the argument on its weakest leg. Go figure.

2) The Saudis, as jeremiah mentioned above are the real threat. Not so much the North Koreans (though they're a f***** up problem too). Not the Americans either, for that matter.