October 18, 2002

David Warren looks at the current world scene, as seen by the flashing red light revelation this week that North Korea has nukes, and his conclusion is particularly grim, but, I fear, accurate:
N. Korea's nuclear threat is no bluff

[...]The reality is that the U.S., and the world, are now staring down a regime that is demonstrably mad, and that considers itself to be struggling for survival, and which probably does have the means to annihilate some millions of people in South Korea and Japan, if not farther afield. (We simply do not know if they have successfully developed missiles that could reach North America.)

We have, in other words, right on the table, exactly what the Bush administration says we will be facing in Iraq if we don't soon change the regime of Saddam Hussein. I was quite struck, in consulting my usual suspects within the Bush administration, to realize they are now more worried about Korea than Iraq, and by the tone of "trying to remain calm" emanating from Seoul and Tokyo.

Add to this what has just happened in Bali; simultaneous al-Qaeda attacks in Kuwait, Yemen, Afghanistan, and possibly even the suburbs of Washington, D.C. We further know that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are doing everything to trigger war between Pakistan and India in Kashmir, and between Israel and its neighbours, from Syria and Lebanon. While the formal diplomatic world may have its eyes focused on the Security Council, that is not where an event of any significance is unfolding.
[...]
So we have the military equivalent of Pascal's Wager. If your enemies are bluffing about their resources, or really don't have the weapons you suspect, then there will be no great harm in going in to find out. If they are not bluffing, and are lethally armed, then the sooner you go in the better. My own reasonably educated guess is they are not bluffing; that terrible surprises are in store from each member of the "axis of evil," and the terrorists they sponsor. And one cannot look at the number of fuses now lit without anticipating a big explosion.

Dear Lord, let's hope he's wrong, but too often in the last few months, Warren has been right (such as being among the first to predict that the U.N. would be the "first casualty" of the new War).
People, PRAY...for President Bush and his Cabinet, for our military, even for the murderous leaders of the axis of evil and Al Queda and especially for America and ourselves.
These are dark, tense October days every bit as scary as the ones that some of us lived through in 1962 when President Kennedy had to face down the Russians over Cuban missiles.
Putting your head in the sand will not get you anywhere, I regret to say.
Be aware, be watchful and be prayerful.