n For someone who is decidedly so anti-Republican, or anti-Bush as it were, I find it disheartening that Chris Bianchi should favor war-mongering over the proposed steps toward non-hostile retribution toward the supposed nuclear testing in North Korea (“The hidden dangers of North Korea’s nuclear testing,” Oct. 12, p. 11).
While Bianchi is wholly dissatisfied by the proposal of economic sanctions, we must step back and view the situation from a broader perspective. Japan has already imposed economic sanctions, which will force all currently docked North Korean ships to leave port immediately.
At the same time, China has imposed harsh sanctions upon the dismal and economically limited nation of North Korea. If economic sanctions were just some simple laughing matter, as was suggested by the anecdotal Anchorman DVD example, then why would China want to lessen the proposed sanctions?
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that “simple” economic sanctions are enough to bring the economy of North Korea to a screeching halt due to the fact that they are limited in their resources in addition to not being supported by a large majority of the international community. That fact aside, the incredulous step to associate Iran with North Korea is some impressive conning if I’ve ever seen some.
But to state that the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is publicly striving for nuclear weapons is an uneducated misrepresentation of the facts. Time and time again, the Iranian leader has stated that the uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes only.
While I do not necessarily believe these statements, he most certainly did not “publicly [state] he is striving for [nuclear weapons].” Basically, the last thing this country (or the world) needs is another escalated conflict fueled by the ignorant and uninformed.
We are already fighting a battle against a hidden enemy, what is the point in waging war against a dilapidated nation with the fifth-largest army in the world? The end result would be nothing short of disastrous for this country, that country and all other economies with viable interests in both.
In short, a non-violent response is exactly what we need in this hot-tempered, short-fused world of nuclear powers.
Charlie Renfro
ENG ’08