cys' soapbox
sometimes, things just get to me. it could be little, everyday annoyances, or it could be things that just piss the shit out of me. at those times, I just need to rant like crazy to let out any psychotic tendencies I might have.
in the other extreme, there are times when I just find myself loving something for one odd reason or another. I wanna share those moments, too.
so, this is where cys gets to let steam off by ranting or raving to her heart's content.

read at your own risk. I plan on being as honest and frank as possible.

^^;v

so. I looked at the LA Times this morning and what should I see on the front page but a story about how North Korea has admitted to having a nuclear weapon program and how they have the capability of producing two warheads.

that scares me. but not for what you may think.

I'm not scared that North Korea has nuclear weapons. I'm scared about how my so-called government will react. a sane person would do everything possible not to go to war with a country that has nuclear capabilities. but with Bush et al in power....

almost ten years ago, in 1994, the US and North Korea signed an agreement where North Korea would halt any nuclear weapon programs it may have and switch over to light water reactors in exchange of the US providing the necessary materials to build those light reactors. (for those of you that don't know the difference, heavy reactors produce waste that can be used in weapons production. light reactors do not.)

since then, the US has not provided the necessary materials, has staged military maneuvers off the coast of North Korea, and had its most recent president call North Korea part of the "Axis of Evil". this is the same US that has over 2000 nuclear missiles in stockpile, has refused to sign any disarmament treaties in recent years, and is trying its damndest to go to war with Iraq. the same US that had a trade embargo on North Korea for over forty years. the same US that had to have a discussion in Congress on whether or not it would be allowed to send food relief to North Korea when it was struck by devestating floods that caused a famine that was killing children with starvation.

with this sort of track record, how else is North Korea supposed to react but to say don't fuck with us?

it really doesn't surprise me that North Korea would admit to having nuclear weapon capabilities as a way to deter the US from taking any action against it. I'm not even surprised that the US government announced this news to the public two weeks after they knew of this. if anything, I'm surprised that they announced it so soon.

at this point in time, the US government can't really afford for this news to become public. why? because for those of us with the capability of thinking for oursevles, it raises some questions.

why hasn't this news blown up even more than it has?

why are we going to war with Iraq for the possibility that the Iraqis are developing nuclear weapons programs and saying that we have "alternative" ways of dealing with North Korea who we know has nuclear capability?

why treat the two "threats" so differently?

what is it about Iraq that is giving Bush and his cronies such a hard-on to go launch a full-scale attack?

how are Bush and his cronies going to react to this situation now?

how is this going to affect the millions of Asians, and specifically Koreans, living in the US?

these are just some of the questions I'm thinking of.

not much of ranting going on, I know, but I'm tired. it'd take energy I don't have at the moment to convey the full measure of my concern. so, rather, I hope I leave something for people to think about.

Saturday, October 19, 2002, 12:29 a.m.