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Threat of North Korean Nukes & Bush's New Line in the Sand a
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"We will not tolerate the explosions of North
Korean atomic bombs on American soil!"
On October 14, 2006, the UN Security Council approved sanctions against NK. Simply put: BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
Never mind that North Korea's so-called "fizzled" nuclear test might have involved a low-yield, portable weapon for sale to Al Qaeda. If true, the UN sanctions in their present form will be a self-deluding waste of time.
Even so, despite that grim and realistic possibility, the next morning, Oct. 15, on the Sunday TV talk show "Meet the Press," former U.N.
Ambassador John Bolton declined to explain how the sanctions would work in light of Red China's refusal to enforce its border with North Korea and Great Britian's announced unwillingness to participate in a naval blockade.
In addition, Bolton characterized the October 8 event in North Korea as an "attempted test," suggesting it might have failed and the threat of NK nukes wasn't immediate. Reasonable people would call that conclusion "wishful thinking."
W-54 atomic artillery shell successfully tested in the 1970s.
The W-54 round shown above, which houses the smallest nuclear
warhead ever deployed by the U.S. military, has a plutonium core
with a selectable explosive yield of 10 to 250 tons of TNT. The "puny" NK test was estimated at 500 tons.
Rather than scorn North Korea's .5 kiloton underground blast, the Bush administration should have anticipated the event because a lighter warhead dramatically increases the trajectory of NK's 3,700-mile-range, Taepodong-2 intercontinental rocket, putting more of
the United States within striking distance of the terror weapon.
As it turned out, the White House, Pentagon and State Department appear to have been caught flat-footed by the low-yield test with no suitable response for protecting America from a threat infinitely worse than hijacked jetliners.
So far, the only announced military action being considered by Commander-in-Chief Bush is the positioning of air defense Patriot missiles near two U.S. installations in Japan. All that will do is indicate timidity on Shrub's part to Bin Laden and his future
nuke supplier, NK Chairman Kim Jong-il.
Hugh Scott believes a naval blockade is the only effective way of disarming North Korea. Absent strong military action, one thing is certain. Another line in the sand by Huff & Puff Bush won't prevent an atomic Taepodong ICBM from hitting Chicago someday or miniature "suitcase" warheads being sold to international terrorists.
Suitcase-sized atomic bomb with cell phone-activated trigger.
In the 1980s, both U.S. and Soviet technicians made weapon design refinements that allowed portable nukes like the one above to weigh less than 60 pounds and fit inside a container measuring 24 inches by 16 inches by 8 inches.
There is absolutely no way the October 14 UN sanctions can prevent North Korea from producing and exporting .5 kiloton walking atomic bombs. For President Bush to ignore the grave danger posed by an adversary that calls the sanctions "an act of war" is nothing less than treasonous behavior.
Sadly and perhaps tragically someday, according to polls taken on Oct. 16, a majority of Americans agreed with their cut & run commander-in-chief that diplomacy is the best way of dealing with a sworn enemy led by a lunatic dictator. That's what British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said in 1938 after meeting with Adolph Hitler.
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