Justin said:

>If you are not in favor of military action itself, but rather attempting throught
>the U.N., knowing full well that it will be futile and serve only to clear our
>name for turning ablind eye to the tragedy, then, oddly enough I would
>probably agree with you.

This is close to my "pragmatic" opinion concerning this. I actually have two opinions. One is the "fantasy land, emotional opinion" and the other is the "pragmatic opinion".

Fantasy land as in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" opinion:

The United States submits a proposed resolution to the U.N. Security Council stating that it is the unanimous decision of the United Nations Security Council that the government of North Korea is so profoundly evil that it constitutes an insult to the entire human race and can no longer be tolerated by the civilized world. The government of North Korea is to be immediately replaced by a military authority designated by the United Nations. Former members of the North Korean government are to be immediately transported to the The Hague for trial by the World Court where they will be tried for crimes committed against humanity. [This scenario is of course delusional fantasy.]

A pragmatic opinion:

It is understood that North Korea has a huge human robot army that would happily fight to the death for their dear leader. It is also understood that the North Korean government would try to kill as many innocent people as possible through out the Korean peninnsula in order to cling to power. Probably the only hope of a military action against North Korea that could keep casulties under one million would involve a military alliance between China, Japan, South Korea and the United States under UN auspices. The initial assault would have to be some sort of decapitation action where most of North Korea's leadership was killed within 12 hours. The probability of one robot North Korean general surviving and launching a nuclear or massive nerve gas attack assault against Seoul should be asssumed as virtually certain. However getting a military alliance past the United Nations is a non-option. China, Russia and France would veto such a proposal simultaineously. The United States can not attack North Korea without China solidly on board as a full military partner. At this point, all America can do is submit a U.N. proposal against North Korea, knowing that it would be soundly defeated. However, in my opinion, we should do this. Also it is not clear to me that is ethical to even be negotiating with the North Koreans. What's the point? They're totally evil and everything they say is a lie. We should be up front and very clear in saying to the North Korean: "We find your continued existance to be an insult to our sense of morality".

Gary