This was in response to a quote from me, in post 46.
Which was a reply to the reply of my post,
Post #39, which was not addressed to you.
The address that Collumbus provided is good as it's straight from the mouth of the imperialist.
Calling Bush an "imperialist" is very... uneven. I'm no fan, but as I pointed out we don't exactly have an Empire. So... so much for being Imperialist. I saw it mentioned that our military bases could be considered so, but having lived on one of them abroad, it is nothing like having sovereign states akin to the British Empire.
But let's take a look at
what was said of North Korea.
"A regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens." Oh, the horror of his words. Which also happen to be true.
Smearing America as "imperialist" and trying to victimize North Korea
grossly ignores the many human rights crimes that they have committed. It ignores the Kim regimes which
have acted atrociously against their people since
before the Bush administration;
About the hell that people are put through for the most miniscule of infringements. It ignores the absolute ridiculousness of calling North Korea the "Democratic People's Republic" when nothing about the nation is for or of the people--nor are they Democratic; "Vote for this one person or be imprisoned and executed" is not democracy.
This is a good compilation of American threats of nuclear war
Threats of nuclear war
According to declassified and other US government documents, some released on the 60th-anniversary of the Korean War, from “the 1950s’ Pentagon to today’s Obama administration, the United States has repeatedly pondered, planned and threatened the use of nuclear weapons against North Korea.” [3] These documents, along with the public statements of senior US officials, point to an ongoing pattern of US nuclear intimidation of the DPRK.
(You know, it's funny. Everything that I've searched for this uses the exact same opening line. Yet not one of them gives context. Not one of them offers up the "declassified" military reports. As best I can gather, any discussion of nuclear weapon use has been strictly situational to a reaction counter-attack should North Korea use nuclear weapons against South Korea and Japan. So much for Pyongyang being the victims here.)
• The United States introduced nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula as early as 1950. [4]
• During the Korean War, US president Harry Truman announced that the use of nuclear weapons was under active consideration; US Air Force bombers flew nuclear rehearsal runs over Pyongyang; and US commander General Douglas MacArthur planned to drop 30 to 50 atomic bombs across the northern neck of the Korean peninsula to block Chinese intervention. [5]
• In the late 1960s, nuclear-armed US warplanes were maintained on 15-minute alert to strike North Korea. [6]
• In 1975, US defense secretary James Schlesinger acknowledged for the first time that US nuclear weapons were deployed in South Korea. Addressing the North Koreans, he warned, “I do not think it would be wise to test (US) reactions.” [7]
(Sources 4-7 feed off the same unlinked, copy-paste report passed around by minor reporting groups. Which doesn't give much in the way of evidence.
Source 4 references South Korea and Japan being armed with nuclear weapons. And yet, South Korea has refused the placement of American nukes in their country to this day. And Japan - as a result of World War II - cannot have an army, and is denied the production of nuclear weapons. So this claim by pro-North Korean advocates is just an outright lie.
Source 5 references US deterring of China's involvement in the war, urging them not to come to the aid of North Korea and that the use of nuclear weapons is "an option."
Source 6 and 7 have no official sources, and are thus useless hear-say.)
• In February 1993, Lee Butler, head of the US Strategic Command, announced the United States was retargeting hydrogen bombs aimed at the old USSR on North Korea (and other targets.) One month later, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. [8]
(An utter falsehood. North Korea withdrew from the treaty after the United States called them out on their violation of the treaty by developing nuclear weapons in secret. They later announced possession of nuclear weapons, confirming the United State's accusation. Not only was the United State's actions backed by China - who is also against a nuclear Korean peninsula - but the two countries attempted to negotiate with North Korea and deter aggressions.)
• On July 22, 1993, US president Bill Clinton said if North Korea developed and used nuclear weapons “we would quickly and overwhelmingly retaliate. It would mean the end of their country as we know it.” [9]
• In 1995, Colin Powell, who had served as chairman of the US joints chiefs of staff and would later serve as US secretary of state, warned the North Koreans that the United States had the means to turn their country into “a charcoal briquette.” [10]
• Following North Korea’s first nuclear test on October 9, 2006, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice reminded North Korea that “the United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range—and I underscore full range of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan [emphasis added].” [11]
• In April 2010, US defense secretary Leon Panetta refused to rule out a US nuclear attack on North Korea, saying, “all options are on the table.” [12]
• On February 13, 2013, Panetta described North Korea as “a threat to the United States, to regional stability, and to global security.” He added: “Make no mistake. The US military will take all necessary steps to meet our security commitments to the Republic of Korea and to our regional allies [emphasis added].” [13]
(These five grossly ignore North Korean aggressions towards both South Korea and Japan, which would upset a balance of treaties between the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea. They are rightful statements of "You hit our friends, we hit you back harder.")
As the North Koreans put it, “no nation in the world has been exposed to the nuclear threat so directly and for so long as the Koreans.”[14]
(Well then perhaps North Korea should stop threatening it's neighbors. You don't get to throw your weight around, wave around your treaty-breaking nuclear weapons, and then cry victim when you're barked down.)
This is also quite good. North-Korea: Socialism is Not Only Anti-Imperialism - Revolutionary Communist Party
That reads as pure propaganda, ignoring as much of North Korea's crimes as in this thread.
