Sounds fascinating, I presume that the author is Major General Thompson?

Have read his book on the history of the Royal Marines which was a brilliant read.

First goal will to be defeat an insurgent MOD and political cabal that wants nothing more than to cut a fine group of military institutions.

Ok ..you end up with the ultimate Military in the world…So what?

doesn’t really address my point..its hard if not impossible to defeat a belief or an idea.

id have the first one

Ok….so now you have a significant number of people linked by either Religion or Nationality who have an implacable hatred for your country due to your countries interference in their affairs…I dont think we need to go into the reasons, resentment at outside interference ,Families killed by ” friendly Fire “, Mother -sister-daughter raped by one bad apple, etc etc etc…

Revenge is not purely an American or Israeli thought process so next thing you know the ” foreigners” or those in sympathy come looking for payback….

Now where do you go?

Better by far to work through diplomacy and negotiation. mind you the arrogance of the ” Civilized ” world has probably left us with a situation that is beyond redemption.

The nuclear weapon cannot be un-made, so it is necessary for nations to maintain some nuclear weapons. It is any nations right to have a nuclear program.

However, it is not neccesarily in the best interest of the current nuclear powers to let anyone new into the club, so the behavior that they are displaying is not hypocritical, it is as simple as looking out for number one.

Personally I think that nuclear proliferation can only be a bad thing. The more nuclear weapons are developed my unstable nations, the more likely some crazy dictator will get to use them, or will pass them on to someone who will.

It is my honest opinion that North Korea should be prevented from developing these weapons, even if it means a black op. to destroy their reactors. The North Korean regime is simply too dangerous to the world to let it have its own way.

Have to agree that there are some regimes where possession of such weapons is a concern.

But how do we judge who should have them and who should’nt?

Is Israel a fit state with its ultra right wing attitudes of my country at any cost?

Is GW a fit president with his christian fundamentalist backers?

Is Tony the poodle to be trusted with his ” America right or wrong” point of view ?

and it goes on and on…

I remember at the height of the cold War someone suggested that we look at it from the point of view of a Russian. ” Surrounded ” by China , Various American backed Governments in Europe ,the Middle and Far east….

NK will be looking at things in a similar vein.

I don’t think it’s that easy to make a nuclear bomb, we would have known about it by now. Soviet warheads for sale? I don’t think setting up a warhead would be that easy, just think of the weight of the thing. The rest I will leave to your imagination….
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should i have said fusion or atomic rather than nuclear?…lets just say a big dirty great bomb that kills a lot of people and leaves ground zero uninhabitable for years.

But apart from that…with money anything is available in the former Soviet Union, Materials and knowhow .

I am though amazed that we havent had such an incident already.

Absolutely right, this weapon means power, they are up with the big boys now. However they are now in a more dangerous position , than they were before. With Nukes, one mistake and that’s the end. Paradoxically this now puts them in a weaker position, if their technology isn’t as good as ours. All it takes is one cruise missile, fired from an aircraft, or sub. If I were NK I would not launch an ICBM…
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Neither would I….not when all you would need to do is load it onto a Ship and sail it into any port you like…Or load it into a Jet and send it out on what looks like a normal cargo flight under a ” neutral ” flag and hey presto..one nuke capable bomber.

Yes the latter would prob have to be a suicide mission but whos to say that there isnt a fanatical cadre of pilots available in NK ?

Lets not forget that we have what appears ( according to the media and Western governments ) to be the Fanatic son of a fanatic Father in charge of the country…And for once i am not talking about GW! i doubt

with regards to it being a more powerfull but dangerous position for NK, Yes it is but i reckon they think that it will be worth it in the long term..they have one hell of a bargaining chip at the mo !

Simply put we should leave this situation to those who have worked for a solution and have almost achieved it in the past.

The Japanese Government were very very close to an agreement with NK which would have prevented the present escalation of tensions .They hope to achieve through diplomacy , without the inevitable loss of life incurred with any military intervention, the resolution of this troubled regions problems.

Japan wants to see a change in the ruling regime but they want to achieve this through negotiation and diplomacy…they nearly had it a few years back but it fell apart at the last minute..

To be realistic any country finding itself described as a member of the Axis of Evil will naturally react;

1.Fear that they will be invaded.( looking at Iraq & Afghanistan )

2.boost their defenses as much as possible.

3.Realising that they cannot use conventional means resort to the next
available defense..after all it was good enough for NATO in the cold
war so…

4. Use this ” new ” weapon as a negotiating tool.

Lets hope that we dont end up with another Nation and people hating the rest of us !

nK brought any commentary by the US onto itself through its own actions and rhetoric. Notice how we don’t threaten Brazil, South Africa, or Swaziland, for example.

Or Isreal …strange that isnt it…A Nuclear power, constantly invading its neighbours territories, guilty of massive human rights abuse,murdering foreign peace keepers, non-compliance with UN resolutions, etc etc etc….

And strange to say Former Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Tanaka , who probably knows more about the Korean situation than most, seems to think that comments made by GW in the past didnt exactly help peace and tranquility in the region….