The news of North Korea’s announcement of the detonation of their first nuclear weapon is reverberating around the world. It is certainly an unwelcome development if true. Now the question is, can that junior varsity Stalinist Kim Jong Il resist the temptation to use it in a warshot? Or, sell copies to a growing list of unwholesome groups bent on the delivery of radioactive hellfire to the infidel crusaders? What may actually be worse than having one go off in the US is our possible response and the cascade of events that follow. What would we actually do? Whose home soil would we vitrify in our wrath? Whom would we smite? I fear that our reply would have an Old Testament ring to it.
I’m reminded of the famous quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer-
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that one way or another.
I vaguely remember talk of the nuclear genie when I was a skinny Iowa farm boy in the 1960’s. Knowledgeable people assured that once the nuclear genie was out of the bottle there was no putting him back in. North Korea and Iran remind us that the nuclear genie is still out of the bottle. And while we worry less about a barrage of ICBMs flying over the north polar cap towards us, or Warsaw Pact forces storming into western Europe, we are stirred out of our slumber by third or fourth tier states cobbling together a fission apparatus.
An hour and a half drive from where I am typing this can be found missile silo’s. Deep underground in undisclosed locations Air Force Missileers monitor the status of their squadron of missiles while maintaining readiness. Kim Jong Il’s shenanigans have brought back an immediacy to the matter.
Kim is aware that the fact of power is the act of power. And swinging around a nuclear bomb is definitely an act of power. The real danger of a North Korean Bomb isn’t just in the immediate threat to possible victims. The larger threat lies in how the existying nuclear powers respond. Once a North Korean nuclear bomb is triggered in anger, restraint will fly out the window. It would be a difficult time for the North Koreans and whomever bought their bomb.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
Bush and the Republicans were not protecting us on 9-11, and we aren’t a lot safer now. We may be more afraid due to george bush, but are we safer? Being fearful does not necessarily make one safer. Fear can cause people to hide and cower. What do you think? Why has bush turned our country from a country of hope and prosperity to a country of belligerence and fear.
Are we safer today than we were before?
We have lost friends and influenced no one. No wonder most of the world thinks we suck. Thanks to what george bush has done to our country during the past three years, we do!
North Korea and Iran? What about U.S.A. and Israel? Both have nuclear weapons. Oh, I forgot, the Jews are just defending themselves, just like their last attack on Lebanon which left 1/3 of the Lebanese population homeless. Just self defense, hey? If you’re going to talk about nuclear weapons programmes, talk about the only country to have ever used a weapon of mass destruction (U.S.A.) and the country that was illegally created and then sustained through genocidal acts for 60 years (Israel). Iran don’t have nuclear weapons, they have enrichment programmes that can’t even be linked to weapons, so stop feeding us Channel 6 News horseshit and read further into things.