I have no intentions of going geopolitical on you. But I can't let this moment in history pass into the past without a brief mention.
As many of you likely know, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion yesterday (Happy Memorial Day, America...now die!) This follows hard on the rogue nation's fizzled launch of a long-range missile early last month.
I just wanted to thank Kim Jong-il, the nutbar leader of this sad, sad nation for reintroducing an element of life - the threat of nuclear annihilation - we all thought had been retired with the end of the Cold War. I grew up amid a tense, long-term nuclear standoff across the Iron Curtain, East-vs-West sabre rattling and fears the Soviet Union might actually succeed in paving Europe a lovely shade of pinko red.
I remember learning at the age of seven how fast an ICBM could make it to my hometown after launch, and what it would do to me when it got there. At the age of eight, I was writing compositions that explained how MIRVs worked and why nuclear weapons made no sense.
And now a nation that can't afford to feed its citizens instead chooses to allocate scant resources to a technology and a capability that can only bring more misery inside and outside its borders. I get that this little punk of a country wants so-called respect from world powers. I get that lighting off a nuke perversely strengthens its negotiating position. I get that my now-eight-year-old son may find himself writing about a topic I thought we had retired for good.
I also get that citizens without a chance have now been shoved even deeper into a hole that was never of their making. This is all so wrong on more levels than I can count.
Bite me, Kim Jong-il. Seriously...you suck. And don't count on getting a Chanukah card from me this year, either. You're off the list.
Your turn: Thoughts?
So well said that I have absolutely nothing to add....
ReplyDeleteDo you remember what you were taught as a child about what to do during a nuclear attack?
ReplyDeleteThat's right!
DUCK & COVER!
yes apparently, according to the Government all you schoolchildren had to do to survive annhilation was to duck under your desk and cover your arms over your head.
sing it with me:
duck & cover, duck & cover.
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ReplyDeleteFrom the desk of iW2K
'Get noticed.'
He is clearly deranged. I feel only sorrow and compassion for the people of that country.
ReplyDeleteThe scary part is that one deranged man will sell his technology and weapons to another deranged man half way around the world.... talk about destabilization of the Middle East!
ReplyDeleteOf course, I for one have never and will never buy into the politically correct idea that there can ever be peace in the Middle East. Since the split starting with Abraham... Ishmael and Isaac... it was written and so it has been.
But please, don't let the two mad men get together... I too remember the Cuban missile crisis and how frightened I was as a child. No child should have to fear this.
sad, just very sad
ReplyDeleteYou know what's spooky? Joe Biden was chastised for saying during the campaign that some foreign power would "test" the President within six months of his inauguration. I count 4 months and some odd days. It might not have been a politically savvy thing to say at the time, but it was pretty damn accurate.
ReplyDeleteWhat scares me more than anything is how the Far Right will spin this and use it to resuscitate the culture of fear that was finally beginning to subside. Because as frightening as the proposition of one nut job selling a few firecrackers to another nut job is, it isn't terrifying on the level of a panicked, pissed off America with more nukes in the basement than anybody else in the world.
The only people that could possibly be happy about this are the defense contractors. They're seeing their salvation in the person of a lunatic half a world away.
Then again, haven't they always?