Tuesday, July 15, 2003
North Korea Says It Has Made Fuel for Atom Bombs
This development is an entirely logical response to administration policy. First North Korea and Iran were bracketed with Iraq in the infamous 'axis of evil' comment. Then Iraq was invaded.
The logical interpretation of these events is that the Bush administration intends to launch a pre-emptive invasion, particularly since the administration refuses to guarantee that it will not invade. It should suprise no-one therefore that both Iran and North Korea are actively building nuclear weapons, it would be suprising if they were not.
This outcome was widely predicted before the invasion of Iraq. It is now clear that Saddam did not have any 'weapons of mass destruction' in a form that could be used quickly and almost certain that he had none at all. If the object of the invasion was preventing WMDs getting into the wrong hands it has failled.
It is difficult to see any means of preventing this development at this stage. The US has demonstrated that it is unwilling to trust weapons inspection programs and does not consider itself bound by the decisions of the UN Security Council.
Pre-emption is a dangerous doctrine because it leaves potential adversaries with no choice but to plan for conflict.
