From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Tue Feb 25 2003 - 09:07:38 EST
Re Rakesh's [8506]: > Even if this is true, I don't think it explains why, then, the US is > preoccupied with the Gulf rather than say nuclear weapon wielding > North Korea. A possible military confrontation with North Korea is far different from a military confrontation with Iraq. By way of analogy, the US government in the early 1980's wanted to overthrow the governments in (among other places) Cuba and Grenada. Why did they invade Grenada and not Cuba? Well, they thought they could invade Grenada within a very brief time with minimal projected casualties. If they invaded Cuba, they knew it wouldn't go down like that. Of course, when the US invades Iraq the cost to the US in terms of casualties and budgetary expense will be far greater than what happened in Grenada. But, it would be far less than if they invaded North Korea. The US relation to S. Korea and Japan is also an important factor guiding the tactic chosen by the Bush administration for dealing with the so- called 'crisis' in North Korea. As for the timing of the US confrontation with Iraq (following up on my comment in 8450), before Bush took office Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Co. had already agreed that "regime change" in Iraq was necessary from their perspective. Yet, Iraq only became a major issue for the administration after 9/11. This suggests that irrespective of the underlying economic and political reasons, the timing was in large part opportunist. That is, with the shift to the Right after 9/11, Bush and Co. realized that they were able to push parts of their agenda at an accelerated rate. It was for the purposes of manufacturing consent for war by people in the US that the whole alleged (and unfounded) Al-Quida-Iraq connection was propagandized. Creating fear and hysteria about 'WMD' was also a part of this process of opportunizing on 9/11 by the Right to rationalize war and the rest of the right-wing agenda. In solidarity, Jerry
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