The Iranian government, this government attacked our embassy and held our staff members hostage. They are exporting weapons to terror organizations. Israel is one piece but as an American a small reason why I would never want to see this regime have access to nuclear weapons. Rhetoric hardly, they are active in terrorism across the globe and very anti-American. Anyone who thinks this is about rhetoric has an agenda.
Correct, however to assert that Iran has stated its intentions to create and use nuclear weapons is false.
"Collective mind"? The "regime" is one dude and whoever he lets help influence decisions (which IMO is more volatile than a deliberating regime).
Actually, we don't know that for certain either. Kim Jong-Un is the figurehead. There's speculation that it's his aunt and uncle calling the shots, there's speculation that the military wanted more say (possibly leading to the recent changeup in military generals in North Korea). Or, it could really be Kim Jong-Un by himself. Either way, the Kim family as a whole plays a big part in how decisions are made, from what I've read. It goes back to the article I linked. The regime wants to portray itself at once as Ferocious, Crazy, and Weak (provides a disincentive for attacking them directly since we're always under the impression that the regime is about to fall). And that theory holds that it's a calculated method, designed to elicit as much aid as possible (that can be diverted back to the family).
Apparently Colorado Springs is soon going to feel the wrath of N Korean military power.... too bad they seem to think it is in Lousiana. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...colorado-springs-but-doesnt-know-where-it-is/
I already discussed this so I'll re-explain: KJU is without a doubt the unquestionable leader of NK but there are questions as to the influence of his aunt/uncle over him. One could assume that he's being coerced but that's only being argued because he's young and wasn't groomed for the job nearly as long as KJI. And yes, the Kim family makes the decisions, starting with KJU. Anything specific about the relationship is conjecture, but it would be unreasonable to assume that KJU is a figurehead given his father's demeanor.
Its high time FatBoy gets spanked. I'm sick and f'n tired of hearing or reading about his shithole of a country every fckn morning. He talks all this shit, but doesn't have the balls to back it up. If FatBoy really wants a war, he'll get one and I think China will let him get his ass kicked unless we get too close to the Yalu river. He seems to think that he has the only nukes in the area. Nothing could be further from the truth. He seems to think his country is bulletproof from any incoming nukes. Again, wrong. I wouldn't blame SoKor one bit if they went out and brought the tech to make nukes on the open market. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they somehow managed to get their hands on the tech to make a bomb just like Israel did.
Unless NoKor does anything that would be considered an act of war I don't think anything happens. I think they know they don't stand a chance in an actual war so they are being careful not to go too far over that line. It's all just a new leader trying to look tough.
In theory this could become the new normal in NK vs the world relations. NK doesn't have to back down from the posture they're in at the moment. They could just keep growling heavily as the sanctions continue to deprive them of the currency and goods they need to make everything work. At some point that will wear out internally and there will be a coup but that point could literally be years in the making.
Yeah that stuff was unreal, gotta love VICE for that. Here it is if if you've not seen it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awQDLoOnkdI&list=SPBA9D6F13DEBC3D9E
First off, thanks for the link to the VICE episode. I ended up staying up late the other night to watch it. Very interesting! In new news, the North Koreans are offering to start talks, as long as a number of preconditions are met. (And we give them stuff) "North Korea offered the United States and South Korea a list of conditions on Thursday for talks, including the lifting of U.N. sanctions, signalling a possible end to weeks of warlike hostility on the Korean peninsula. The North Korea’s top military body also said in a statement the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula would begin when the United States removed nuclear weapons that the isolated state says Washington has deployed in the region. The move was likely a sop to the North‘s only major backer, China, which has signalled its growing unease over the escalation of threats, and which said later on Thursday that talks were the only correct way to end the tension. “Dialogue and war cannot co-exist,” the North’s National Defence Commission said in the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. “If the United States and the puppet South have the slightest desire to avoid the sledge-hammer blow of our army and the people … and truly wish dialogue and negotiations, they must make the resolute decision,” it said (http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-demands-end-sanctions-u-wants-dialogue-030448496.html)" Sorry, my messageboard-fu is not up to properly quoting it, but the preceding 5 paragraphs come quoted from a rueters article. So, this is how they start to climb down. There's still a lot of room for miscalculations, unintended (or intentional) provocations from any of the 3 parties directly involved. So, we're not out of the woods yet, but it's looking better.
So we're getting near the North Korean Non-back-down back-down point. That's good to see. Hopefully the North Korean leadership understands that people who live by a cauldron of fire tend to die in a cauldron of fire.
Can either of these statements be definitively proven? I thought the embassy attack was a bunch of protesting citizens that took it too far, unless you're going back to the 50s embassy thing, but that was a different regime.
VICE is awesome. The India/Pakistan episode made me really concerned for the well being of this stupid ass planet.
No the Iranian government arrested the students and returned our embassy staff and cleaned up the grounds and returned all documents the very next day.
