The North Korean Threat

Unlike my last blog post here, the following has some definite relevance. This was written for an English Composition class. The requirements were for the text to be in blog format- informal by nature. As the following subject was particularly interesting (and scary) for me, I feel that I put more emotion into this post. I also feel that I could have been much more thorough and thought provoking if given less length constraints.

As a student who had previously been in the military and had deployed worldwide (including to the Korean peninsula), I watch with a keen eye the on going of world affairs. More then just my military training, I have always had an intense fascination with government, politics and international relations and, as such, am now an International Studies Major, taking Arabic.

Last night, I stayed up later then usual, completely fascinated- and a bit dumbfounded- by the news that North Korea had detonated a nuclear weapon. While the weapon was many times smaller then what the North Korean government had originally wanted to test, the event stands as a cataclysmic event. I don’t think enough people realize the ramifications of this action.

Our parents grew up during the pinnacle of the Cold War and the worldwide arms race. This was a scary time for many. And, while I am far from a doomsday prophesier myself, I have to admit that actions like those conducted by North Korea only work to regress the world back into that stage. I am sure that your parents can tell you of bomb alerts that were conducted at school when they were growing up, much like the fire drills that we conduct now. I hate to think that we may be slowly inching our way back into a world that requires such precautions again.

I could talk about this topic all day as it really interests me. However, I just wanted to put this out there and hope everyone is, at least, aware of what is going on in their world. What happens today 20,000 miles from Tampa, Florida may have a profound impact on your world here tomorrow.

The following is a link on cnn.com concerning President Bush’s response to North Korea’s nuclear weapon test.