Originally posted by HigherLearningSociety
Test or no test- this launch will start the war- as everyone is ordered to shoot it down- no matter what it is,
Is there any confirmation of that? I haven't seen any reports of a plan to shoot anything down, and that might actually be considered a provocative
act in itself.
As far as I am aware, the UN has stated that a test firing is against sanctions, but that doesn't mean any nation has a plan to shoot it down.
Having said that, I think someone
should shoot it down. I would support that move. This is a nation which has repeatedly threatened its
neighbours with military attack, and in any sane world anything they fire from their territory for any reason which could be deemed a threat to
neighbours should be shot down within moments.
I have no problem with a nation testing weaponry in peace time, with good communication with neighbours, but that's not what we have here. We have a
rogue nation working on a nuclear weapon, and one that is incredibly unstable, and one that has directly threatened to attack others with nuclear
weapons before they even have them.
In my opinion, that gives the international community the right to shoot down anything and everything they throw in the air at any time.
I also don't think it would "start a war". We would need China on our side, and I don't believe they would agree to an attack on NK unless there
was no other choice and they deemed it to be absolutely necessary. China has been expressing exasperation with their neighbours in recent months, as
has Russia, but China cannot afford to be fighting off hundreds of thousands of NK refugees at its border.
I think we'll see NK launch a rocket, it will either fail or just go on it's way without incident. The UN and all nations will condemn the launch.
We might then see another launch in defiance, and that would probably then be shot down. NK will focus on that "achievement" by praising it on their
national media, in celebration of their dear leader, and then we'll all go back to talking about having talks and giving them aid... rinse and repeat
for 2014.
The question is, are we willing to just let them carry on until they DO manage to fit a nuke on one of those rockets? If this isn't resolved now, and
if we do just go back to talking about aid in exchange for peace, will we wake up in 2014 to the same threats and warnings, but this time see them
aiming a nuclear armed missile at Japan?
I'm anti-war, but I would much prefer to see them taking out Kimmy and his regime now, than have to deal with it next year or the year after when
their weapons capability really is nuclear.
This isn't just a mouthy little leader we're dealing with here. This is an unstable regime, both politically and mentally.