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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Ex- defence chief suggests military action against N Korea |
| 2007-01-20 |
| The United States should consider military action against North Korea if China and South Korea refuse to prod Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program, former US defence secretary William Perry proposed Thursday. Perry, the Pentagon chief under former president Bill Clinton, said the United States should consider destroying a large reactor under construction in North Korea capable of making about 10 nuclear bombs a year. Perry said that the danger of the North Korean nuclear weapons program was by now obvious to China and South Korea and that they should be willing to join the United States in any concerted diplomatic initiative. “An additional inducement for China and South Korea would be the concern that if they did not provide the coercion, the United States might take the only meaningful coercive action available to it - destroying the reactor before it could come on line,” Perry said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Worked reeeaaaal well, didn't it? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-01-20 20:27 |
| #7 Doh! I made the same mistake. Looking on wikipedia for a picture, I came across this: Perry adopted "preventive defense" as his guide to national security policy in the post-Cold War world. During the Cold War the United States had relied on deterrence rather than prevention as the central principle of its security strategy. Perry outlined three basic tenets of a preventive strategy: keep threats from emerging; deter those that actually emerged; and if prevention and deterrence failed, defeat the threat with military force. A pretty grown-up view of foreign affairs for a Clintonista. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-01-20 10:39 |
| #6 Oops! Thanks, I get these guys mixed up. William Perry, Dem weenie, not be confused with The Fridge. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2007-01-20 08:36 |
| #5 William Perry is a Democrat (he also served in the Carter administration). William Cohen (a nominal Republican) succeeded him as Secretary of Defense. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-01-20 08:08 |
| #4 IIRC, Perry was the sole Republican appointee in the Clinton administration. That's why he sounds like an adult. However, I'd like to see Japan take the lead on NK. Sadly, the world's tyrants, collaborators, and weaklings have little reason to take the US seriously right now. But Japan could cause some fouled drawers in Pyongyang, Seoul and Beijing. You'd think the possibility of being bombed, invaded, and occupied by a resurgent Japan would quickly make cooperation with the US a very attractive option. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2007-01-20 07:06 |
| #3 Exactly. It's part of the 'what about North Korea/Sudan/let's go only with Afghanistan/oh, look-puppies!' strategy. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-01-20 01:45 |
| #2 I'd bet money Perry is only suggesting this because he knows its not going to happen with Iraq/Iran on our plate. It something with which to beat Bush over the head. It goes like this "Bush can't take out the real threat because of the Iraqi misadventure". If Bush said "Good Idea Perry. I'm launching a pre-emptive strike". The left would have a cow. |
| Posted by: Lanny Ddub 2007-01-20 01:16 |
| #1 A Clinton appointee making perfect sense. How did this guy get passed the Clinton vetting process? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-01-20 00:57 |