North Korea Does Nuclear Test 6399

jg

Ideally, *nobody* would have them, or any other weapons that would be useful in conquering new territory. We'd have a world in which humans collaborated equitably and effectively and saw to it that everyone got what they needed. There'd be no application for any weapon more harmful than those needed to subdue the occasional groups of drunken yobs. R & D and public expenditure would go instead into services that improved the lives of humans

Back on the planet as it currently stands, one can argue that by mbuttively raising the costs of a US military attack North Korea having a nuclear device provides a powerful deterrent to the US repeating its stupidity in Iraq. Had the US NOT invaded Iraq, the bulk of the planet including most Americans, would have been better off. The Iraqis would almost certainly have stood better.

So as hostile as I am to the government of North Korea -- (I'd like to see its own people effect *socialist* regime change) -- if seeming to possess a nuclear device does act in this way, then I'm for them having one. For the record, there seems to be some debate about whether they really have exploded a nuclear device. Perhaps the best scenario would be for everyone to *mistakenly* believe that the North Koreans were *capable* of deploying one against the US.

This is more or less the argument used by Israel for its possession of 200 plus nuclear and deployable devices. Not only is the US not demanding compliance but it's continuing to open-endledly fund Israel despite this fact -- which shows that the whole argument about North Korea and nukes is a mere furphy.

Fran