The North Korean Menace

© Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, September23,2007

I fear that while the United States has been involved in the Iraq, we have taken our eyes off the greater threat…North Korea.

On September 6, Israeli planes attacked the Syrian town of Tal al-Abiad and, presumably, destroyed a facility in Syria that appears to have been involved in nuclear research. 

The connection?

It appears that the facility in question may have been provided to the Syrians by the North Koreans!

Both the Israeli and American governments have been singularly quiet about this event.  In a press conference, on Thursday, when asked about the event, President Bush repeated stated, “I am not going to comment about the matter.”

I have believed for some time that to trust the North Koreans was about as wise as handling rattlesnakes!  The six party talks, that the Bush Administration has put so much faith in, have only served to take the heat off the North Koreans and, I fear, provided us with a false sense of accomplishment.

North Korean President Kim Jong-il is, in my judgment, a madman.  To reason with a madman is to become one.  However, since the Bush Administration has so ineptly handled the matter over the past six years, we may be in no position to do anything else.

Our conventional forces are stretched to a level we have not experienced since World War II.  If Hugo "Bozo" Chavez and another couple of rogue Latin American countries should invade the United States through Florida, California, and Texas, they might well be at St. Louis before we could muster a sufficient number of conventional troops here in the country to stop them!

Hopefully, the next administration, regardless of what political party produces it, will move to strengthen our conventional military forces.

In the meanwhile, thank God for the Israelis.