{"id":3969,"date":"2003-03-05T11:33:46","date_gmt":"2003-03-05T16:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3969"},"modified":"2003-03-05T11:33:46","modified_gmt":"2003-03-05T16:33:46","slug":"threat_levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/05\/threat_levels.html","title":{"rendered":"Threat levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of chatter over the news that the warhead of a North Korean missile was found in Alaska<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Without much more info — where in Alaska, for example, which is not all that far from North Korea — it’s difficult for me to get too up in arms about this. But that’s not stopping some people<\/a> from using this as proof that North Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq, and therefore US policy toward the latter is insane and should be immediately reversed.<\/p>\n

Huh?<\/p>\n

I mean, should we only be responding to the single biggest potential threat, and leave all others alone?<\/p>\n

Or should we be responding to all threats the same? Are folks proposing we should move all those troops and ships and aircraft to the Sea of Japan and South Korea? Or, conversely if we’re pursuing multilateral talks regarding North Korea, we should be doing the same regarding Iraq?<\/p>\n

Are all threats the same? If North Korea actually has nuclear weapons, and actually can reach US territory with its missiles, doesn’t that require a bit different of a response than to Iraq, which doesn’t have either capability … but clearly has sought the former and a more limited form of the latter?<\/p>\n

(And doesn’t the “dangerous threat” of someone like Kim who’s gotten that capability actually provide justification for stopping someone like Saddam who’s seeking it?)<\/p>\n

If some maniac like Kim gets off on getting paid attention to, should we indulge him and his ego by dropping everything every time he rattles his sabers?<\/p>\n

What does the situation in Iraq have to do with the situation in North Korea, anyway? The US seems to be engaged in both locations. Diplomats in the area are busy. (Indeed, it’s more than a bit ironic that China, which keeps quietly supporting the UN inspections team approach in Iraq, keeps rejecting calls from the US for multilateral talks with North Korea.) Military forces are being shifted, and readied, if needed. I haven’t seen any indication that our activities regarding Iraq are inappropriately limiting our options or activities regarding North Korea.<\/p>\n

Of course, concerns about North Korea would carry a lot more weight from commentators who are grasping for any reason to condemn the US policy relating to Iraq. Which might be why I don’t think that makes me “an idiot” or someone who is “walking with blinders on, having given up the right to question further what’s being done by the government.”<\/p>\n

Of course, I don’t see the Iraq conflict as “all about avenging those who died on September 11th, 2001,” or as about being “blood for blood,” so what do I know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of chatter over the news that the warhead of a North Korean missile was found in Alaska. Without much more info — where in Alaska, for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/15\/im-shocked-shocked-to-discover-north-korea-is-playing-games-with-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":3969,"position":0},"title":"I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to discover North Korea is playing games with Trump","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-May-18 10:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, the only person who might act as though Kim was dealing in good faith, given how the DPRK has treated every single other US President, would be a zany narcissist who thinks all he has to do is walk into a meeting room and everyone bows down to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-kim.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136818,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/22\/the-most-amazing-threatening-non-threatening-threatful-former-threat.html","url_meta":{"origin":3969,"position":1},"title":"The most amazing threatening non-threatening threatful former threat!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Jun-18 10:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea: EVIL NUCLEAR ROCKET MAN THREAT? Or BESTEST NEW AUTHORITARIAN BUDDIES? Or ONGOING UNUSUAL AND EXTRAORDINARY FISSILE MENACE?Sorry, Donald -- that doesn't look very good on your Nobel Application Form. Trump flips on North Korea, declaring country still an 'extraordinary threat' | US news |\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9979,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/03\/look_at_me_look_at_me.html","url_meta":{"origin":3969,"position":2},"title":"Look at me! LOOK AT ME!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 3-Oct-06 6:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"Because if there's one thing an egotist or a little cannot abide, it's being ignored (or falling off the front pages of the papers) for too long. North Korea said...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4091,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/06\/shrug_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":3969,"position":3},"title":"Shrug","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Feb-03 10:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I was really tempted to fisk Jill Nelson's MSNBC screed against war on Iraq. I mean, the thing begs for it, from painting Colin Powell as a governmental yes-man to...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131962,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/07\/the-nuclear-existential-threat-of-a-trump-presidency.html","url_meta":{"origin":3969,"position":4},"title":"The (Nuclear) Existential Threat of a Trump Presidency","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-Nov-16 11:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, yeah, tons of hyperbole. I understand.But think of Donald Trump.Think of the guy with no foreign policy experience. Think of the guy who doesn't understand the nuclear triad. Think of the guy that gets into 3 a.m. Twitter screeds at his opponents. 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Korea, North's insults turn sexist SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea's description of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}