Tag: North Korea

Americans Seem to Believe they are Immune from Bad Things when Traveling

Do Americans think they are immune to the acts of foreign governments when they travel? Apparently the answer is YES. The State Department warns U.S. citizens to stay away from North Korea but hundreds go anyway every year. Otto Warmbier was an American university student who, while visiting North Korea as a tourist in January 2016 tore a wall poster down as a souvenir. He paid with his life.

North Korea is not the only country that the State Department has warned not to visit. The State Department web site has a Travel Warnings list. The site is headed with the following warning statement.

“We issue a Travel Warning when we want you to consider very carefully whether you should go to a country at all. Examples of reasons for issuing a Travel Warning might include unstable government, civil war, ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks. We want you to know the risks of traveling to these places and to strongly consider not going to them at all. Travel Warnings remain in place until the situation changes; some have been in effect for years.”

There are 44 countries listed. Of those nine are from 2016. Surprisingly none in Europe which is on a Travel Alert list due to threat of terrorist attacks.

The Travel Warnings list includes Mexico. The Mexico specific statement says: “The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens about the risk of traveling to certain parts of Mexico due to the activities of criminal organizations in those areas. U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes, including homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery in various Mexican states. This Travel Warning replaces the Travel Warning for Mexico, issued April 15, 2016.” The site then identifies the cities and states that are particularly dangerous including Mexico City. Despite the warning a total 7.86 million Americans visited the country from January to October 2016, an increase of 12% from the same period in 2015.

Have you visited America’s national parks? My favorites are Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Have you visited Washington D.C.? Both Boston and Philadelphia offer interesting historic sites that I believe everyone should visit. The best part is that you are far safer and you might see a really great show on Broadway in New York City.

North Korea’s lessons for an Iran Deal

If you think the Iran nuclear deal is a breakthrough, said Max Boot, in contemporary.com, consider how the same approach worked with North Korea. The 1994 Agreed Framework was supposed to prevent Pyongyang from developing nukes. But North Korea cheated, developed a uranium enrichment program on the sly, and tested its first bomb in 2006.

“Today it is a full-fledged nuclear power.” Last week, Chinese experts warned that Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal is more advanced than previously feared, with an estimated 20 warheads and another 20 on the way over the next year. U.S. defense officials believe North Korea can now feasibly mount a nuclear bomb on an intercontinental ballistic missile, with enough range to hit California. “It’s not too hard to imagine, a decade from now, reading similar reports” about Iran. And whereas North Korea is “a declining, bankrupt” regime whose leadership only wants to stay in power, Iran is an “expansionist state” with oil wealth, hostility toward Israel, and a goal of exporting its Shiite Islamic revolution throughout the region. The U.S. was duped by a untrustworthy dictatorship before. Why repeat that mistake?

North Korea

A Congressional Research Service report dated April 12, 2012 offered this startling summary of food aid to North Korea. “Between 1995 and 2008, the United States provided North Korea with over $1.3 billion in assistance: just over 50% for food aid and about 40% for energy assistance. Since early 2009, the United States has provided virtually no aid to North Korea. On February 29, 2012, after bilateral talks with the United States, North Korea announced a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities (including uranium enrichment) at its Yongbyon nuclear facilities. It also said it would allow international nuclear inspectors to return to North Korea. The United States announced it would provide North Korea with 240,000 metric tons (MT) of food aid. However, the so-called “Leap Day deal” unraveled after North Korea on April 13, 2012, launched, in defiance of United Nations resolutions, a rocket to place an “earth observation satellite” into orbit. U.S. officials say that during bilateral negotiations they warned their counterparts that any rocket launch using ballistic missile technology would jeopardize the agreement.”

If North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s threats to start a nuclear war are an attempt to get the world’s attention, he’s succeeded.  Will the United States offer more food aid and other assistance to bring his threats to a halt?  It is time we said “No” to his threats.  The consequences of the use of a nuclear weapon are horrifying but when do we stand up to a bully?  The time has come.

The wisest thing we can do right now is not be goaded by the bully.

Is America Finally Understanding the World?

The answer to the question is “maybe not.”

Almost 4,500 American solders lost their lives in Iraq.  Thousands more were seriously injured.  Was it worth the harm?  I do not see sufficient benefits to justify the investment.

President George W. Bush really believed that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan was the right thing to do.

 You could argue that the information about WMD was faulty and that should have been enough to deter the invasion of Iraq. We really do not know what was in Mr. Bush’s mind nor what he was really told.

The invasion of Afghanistan was easier to justify.  The Taliban refused to extradite al-Qaeda leaders to the United   States.  al-Qaeda was the group that carried out the World Trade Center attack.

Mr. Bush argued that part of our mission was to spread democracy to Islamic nations that had lived under tyranny for hundreds of years.  The idea of spreading democracy is a wonderful theory that looks good on paper.  The problem is that most of the people in those countries do not understand the ideas of Western Democracy.  Those that do, do not accept the basic premises of western freedom and democracy.  It’s those words in the American Declaration of Independence that best express the idea of our system of society and government.  Let’s be honest, it took America 89 years to actually implement our own ideals.  That’s the time from the American Declaration of Independence to the end of the American Civil War.

So how can we expect Iraq, Afghanistan, or other Middle Eastern Islamic nations to become Western democracies in just a year or two?  We Can’t!

Thus the United States needs to be concerned with its own survival in a world where many of the players have alternate ideas of how government and society should function.  I believe that President Obama has not yet fully understood this reality.  Why?  1) Our lack of preparation for an attack at Benghazi.  2) The mild response to North Korea’s stated intention to shoot a nuclear weaponized rocket at the United States.  3) The lack of progress in talks with Iran.

North Korea and Iran have stated repeatedly that they consider the United States their enemy.  They have stated their hatred on numerous occasions.  North Korea has stated it is preparing a nuclear armed missile that will target the U.S.A.   Iran had states that their first target is Israel followed by the United States.

We should be concerned and we should be prepared.  Neither North Korea nor Iran has participated in real talks to end the ongoing diplomatic conflicts.  There is nothing that has been reported that indicates that there will be a reduction in the disagreements we have with these two countries.

Unless a new approach to the two America haters is developed I predict there will be a war with both of them.  I hope President Obama has made adequate preparations.

American Preparation for a Nuclear Attack

America does not appear to be prepared for a nuclear attack!

Associated Press report, “The Pentagon announced Friday it will spend $1 billion to add 14 interceptors to an Alaska-based missile defense system, responding to what it called faster-than-anticipated North Korean progress on nuclear weapons and missiles.”

Chuck Hagel“We will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression,” Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense, told a Pentagon news conference.

I take issue with this plan.  Are we waiting for North Korea to shoot missiles at the United States before we would attack them?  If we saw North Korea preparing to attack, why wouldn’t we take a pre-emptive strike against a facility that is being prepped to shoot a rocket at the United States?  News reports say that America’s anti-missile system is flawed and may not work at all.  I wonder why we are not using Israel’s Iron Dome system.

Furthermore, where have our leaders been all of these past years when we knew that their objective has been to obtain nuclear missiles for war?

Today we are trying to dissuade Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.  When will we determine that they cannot be persuaded to stop the development efforts?  What are the signals that tell the United States that we must take military action to stop the Iranian nuclear development?

I am disappointed with our government’s lack of plans.

Perhaps moving to Mexico or Canada now might be something to consider.