6 ms·

Just to add a little context to this comment, the world's foremost nuclear power (the USA) runs live-fire exercises every year where its army practices invading

by tdeck 4y ago

Just to add a little context to this comment, the world's foremost nuclear power (the USA) runs live-fire exercises every year where its army practices invading North Korea. Under these circumstances, it's entirely rational for the NK government to develop nuclear weapons. If the US government really wanted to stop this, it could offer a good faith deal for disarmament involving some kind of reduction of sanctions or normalization of relations. Instead US politicians prefer to hypocritically hand-wring about other countries' nuclear development while maintaining a massive nuclear arsenal to threaten every other country, and while invading or bombing other countries on a regular basis. These are the actions that cause states to feel threatened enough to pour enormous resources into nuclear weapons development.

avereveard 4y ago
Apparently only certain kind of states feel threatened. I wonder what the common thread is between them Oh right, it's the dictatorial megalomaniacs that spew anti western rethoric as distraction for their masses, that who. Truly evil, these USA are.
- tdeck 4y ago
  By this logic Saudi Arabia should feel threatened. But Saudi Arabia is a US client state so it doesn't need to worry. Also, you completely ignored the part about the US practicing invading the country every year. Apparently that doesn't constitute a threat?
  - avereveard 4y ago
    Eh out of the schoolyard we're past "he whom hasn't fault may throw the first stone" And I don't coun't that many bullshit wars. The second invasion of Iraq, maybe Afghanistan. Lybia was, but it was France's bullshit war. Besides Usa has many allies and responsabilities, it's not that strange having them involved in many conflicts.
yongjik 4y ago
> live-fire exercises every year where its army practices invading North Korea It's "practicing invading North Korea" in the same sense North Korea's missile tests are "practicing dropping nukes on America." It's a war practice, all options are on the table, with the hope that they won't be necessary. South Korea and the US had canceled the yearly joint exercise in 2019, hoping for a better relation with North Korea. It didn't work out - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_missile_tests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_missile_t... The exercise resumed in 2022.
- tdeck 4y ago
  > It's "practicing invading North Korea" in the same sense North Korea's missile tests are "practicing dropping nukes on America." The context here is extremely important. All of this (the invasion exercises, the missile tests, the Korean War) have taken place in the Korean peninsula. None of it has threatened the US homeland in a meaningful way. In addition, the exercises have been going on since 1997. That's a long time before any missile tests were conducted. If the DPRK (North Korea's name for its state) had been testing nukes from Cuba in 1997 I'd feel differently. But note that even dropping live bombs on other countries is something the US gets to do without starting a war because the US military is so powerful. Very few other countries operate that way and North Korea certainly isn't one of them.
  - yongjik 4y ago
    I don't know if you're aware of it, but your framing is uncomfortably close to the North Korean diplomatic position, where it pretends that it's a matter to be settled between NK and the US, and any other countries are bystanders. Conspicuously absent is yet another country that will be directly affected by any conflict. Where do you propose the South Korean military conduct its joint military exercise to defend itself from North Korea? Texas? (Of course, the official North Korean propaganda is that South Korea doesn't matter, because it's merely a colony of Imperialist America, to be liberated by our brave northern brothers. How nice of them.) > the exercises have been going on since 1997. North Korea has been caught developing nuclear weapons as early as 1992, which led to it threatening to withdraw from NPT in 1993. It's a shitty situation with decades of history, and you could easily find plenty of things to blame on both sides. But interpreting it as the US threatening to invade NK is a pretty biased take.

by tdeck 4y ago

avereveard 4y ago

Apparently only certain kind of states feel threatened. I wonder what the common thread is between them Oh right, it's the dictatorial megalomaniacs that spew anti western rethoric as distraction for their masses, that who. Truly evil, these USA are.

tdeck 4y ago
By this logic Saudi Arabia should feel threatened. But Saudi Arabia is a US client state so it doesn't need to worry. Also, you completely ignored the part about the US practicing invading the country every year. Apparently that doesn't constitute a threat?
- avereveard 4y ago
  Eh out of the schoolyard we're past "he whom hasn't fault may throw the first stone" And I don't coun't that many bullshit wars. The second invasion of Iraq, maybe Afghanistan. Lybia was, but it was France's bullshit war. Besides Usa has many allies and responsabilities, it's not that strange having them involved in many conflicts.

yongjik 4y ago

> live-fire exercises every year where its army practices invading North Korea It's "practicing invading North Korea" in the same sense North Korea's missile tests are "practicing dropping nukes on America." It's a war practice, all options are on the table, with the hope that they won't be necessary. South Korea and the US had canceled the yearly joint exercise in 2019, hoping for a better relation with North Korea. It didn't work out - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_missile_tests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_missile_t... The exercise resumed in 2022.

tdeck 4y ago
> It's "practicing invading North Korea" in the same sense North Korea's missile tests are "practicing dropping nukes on America." The context here is extremely important. All of this (the invasion exercises, the missile tests, the Korean War) have taken place in the Korean peninsula. None of it has threatened the US homeland in a meaningful way. In addition, the exercises have been going on since 1997. That's a long time before any missile tests were conducted. If the DPRK (North Korea's name for its state) had been testing nukes from Cuba in 1997 I'd feel differently. But note that even dropping live bombs on other countries is something the US gets to do without starting a war because the US military is so powerful. Very few other countries operate that way and North Korea certainly isn't one of them.
- yongjik 4y ago
  I don't know if you're aware of it, but your framing is uncomfortably close to the North Korean diplomatic position, where it pretends that it's a matter to be settled between NK and the US, and any other countries are bystanders. Conspicuously absent is yet another country that will be directly affected by any conflict. Where do you propose the South Korean military conduct its joint military exercise to defend itself from North Korea? Texas? (Of course, the official North Korean propaganda is that South Korea doesn't matter, because it's merely a colony of Imperialist America, to be liberated by our brave northern brothers. How nice of them.) > the exercises have been going on since 1997. North Korea has been caught developing nuclear weapons as early as 1992, which led to it threatening to withdraw from NPT in 1993. It's a shitty situation with decades of history, and you could easily find plenty of things to blame on both sides. But interpreting it as the US threatening to invade NK is a pretty biased take.