----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 10:04 PM Subject: Re: N. Korea Says Has Nukes
> J. van Baardwijk wrote: > > > > > > > So, can we expect an American invasion of North Korea in the near > > future? If nothing else, the US would at least show something > > resembling consistency by invading North Korea. > > > No Oil. > > 8^( Doug, do you really believe that? Who do you think owns the oil in Saudi Arabia? Who owns the oil in Nigeria? The locals do. Various international companies can make more or less money developing Iraq oil depending on who is in charge. But, the Texas oil patch benefits a great deal by the present impasse in Iraq. Without it, with Iraq going great guns, oil prices are expected to drop again. My personal finances would benefit from years of foot dragging and partial sanctions, and I'm fairly typical for the oil patch. Why do you think Bush wants to damage the economy of Texas? Now, lets look at other explanations, for example the difference in threatening armies. North Korea is likely to respond to any threat by attacking South Korea first. They have overwhelming forces already on the border. Let me quote a source you respect on this: "We came within an inch of going to war with North Korea, in a conflict that a Pentagon study found would have killed a million people, including up to 100,000 Americans." Now, I think that overstates it: we only have 34k soldiers there, and all analysis indicates that the danger from the North would be the short term taking of Seoul as a hostage, not a long war. But, lets just say 100k South Koreans would die in such a war. That is an enormously greater loss of innocent life than the highest estimates for Gulf War II. Due to the embargo, Hussein's conventional forces are a shadow of their 1990 self. This seems like a good reason for the difference between our attitude toward North Korea and Iraq. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
