By Matthew G. Bisanz
Saddam Hussein, as we all know now, did not have weapons of mass destruction. He wanted them really bad, but was never able to acquire them. In fact, as it turns out, he wasn’t even close to having them, as extensive UN inspections attested to prior to the invasion.
So why then isn’t the United States rushing as many troops as humanly possible to South Korea to prepare to invade North Korea? Not only did North Korea want weapons of mass destruction. Not only did North Korea attempt to acquire nuclear weapons, but it actually did build, and test the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear bomb. Besides that, it already has built and tested ICBMs that can reach America’s west coast.
Well now, let’s look at where North Korea is located on a map. Is it near the United States to the point of being able to invade the country? No. Have they recently done something that inconveniences the American public? No. Is it near a major deposit of oil? No. Will invading it help President Bush achieve his goals? No. Therefore, America does not care that there is a new member of the nuclear club.
Well America should care about anyone producing nukes. America, like it or not, is the major military power on the globe. While we aren’t good at nation building, we are specialists at nation destroying. Moreover, it’s not like North Korea has that much to destroy, besides all the shrines to their great and dear leaders.
America needs to own up to its responsibility. A famous scripture is, “To whom much is given, much shall be expected,” well the same is true for America. We have been given the best medical care in the world, consumer products unimaginable in other nations and the freedom to decide what our lives will be. In exchange, we are given the responsibility to ensure that others are given the same degree of freedom to have “life, liberty and property.”
North Koreas lack the liberty to decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives. As a communist state, they lack property or even the ability to change the laws to permit the acquisition of property. And life, well North Koreans have a life span 25 years shorter than South Koreans and more on par with an AIDS ravaged African nation than a developing Asian nation.
Americans complain that they should not get involved in other nations and that is true. But when other nations destroy the lives of their citizen, threaten global peace and wantonly violate treaty agreements, one must ask when involvement does become permissible. Sanctions are ineffective given that most nations can operate on an industrial age level without foreign imports. Only through direct intervention can these crimes against humanity be rectified. While it may be disgraceful that the United States never intervened during the 90s when tens of thousands of North Koreans died of starvation, now, when North Korea can threaten the freedom and safety of those in surrounding countries, it is the moral duty of the United States to intervene. For decades, we have placed Japan and Taiwan under our military umbrella to decrease their need to create provocative attack weapons. Where is that umbrella now that North Korea can easily launch a nuke at Tokyo? The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty is based on the idea that non-nuclear states should not pursue weapons in the interests of global peace. What does that treaty mean if nations can hold their region hostage with weapons of mass destruction? In dealing with Libya and Iraq, America showed its resolve to deal with those who will threaten world peace. Now it’s America’s turn to show the world that it will deal with those who threaten world peace and don’t have oil.
Matthew G. Bisanz is a senior political science student. You may e-mail him at [email protected]
