As governments around the world rightly call for North Korea to stop testing bombs, it’s worth remembering that the only country to actually have the madmen using nuclear weapons on a population was the same country that sold them their first two light-water reactors back in 1994. They were to be part of a deal to keep Korea from building weapons, but some things happened along the way.
Our old pal Rumsfeld from the communist scare days – who’s best advice to students for a nuclear attack and the ensuing firestorm, was to hide under our wooden desks of the clapboard schoolhouse – prefers not to talk about playing both sides of the field as only four years after a deal most likely politically engineered by him was made, the Rumsfeld Commission also concluded that North Korea was maintaining a nuclear weapons program. Even seven years later while at the same time Bush is getting ready for including North Korea in the “axis of evil†speech, deals are being made all around and ground is being broken for new facilities.
It was all “sunshine†and lollipops for everyone back in June of 2000, with the Korea’s of North and South meeting complete with historic shaking of hands, repatriation and references to a new Berlin Wall being torn down. Thirteen months later, even South Koreans were protesting in the streets in advance of a visit from Bush and his messianic cowboy rhetoric.
Another four years go by and yet another deal is struck in Sept. of 2005 ostensibly for the same ends as previous failed initiatives, and this time it takes only four days for the USA to shut down all outside economic activity for North Korea world wide, and man was he ever pissed about that.
And it’s been escalating ever since with one side calling the other side names; the buzz words for almost all the TV stations tonight is to label him as a “the madmanâ€. We’re inundated with madmen on every continent, and somehow they all managed to get to be the ones in charge of the most dangerous toys and ideas. The psychosis of the whole situation is amazing, with black being white and the unasked for wars being run by the “defense†departments of governments. And Rumsfeld’s “golden handshake†is there, and here, and everywhere all the while making sure the pot stays stirred.
