According to the latest news reports, North Korea has threatened nuclear retaliation for the joint naval exercises being conducted by the US and South Korea in the waters off the Korean peninsula. Is this a tantrum from the crazy leader of the NK's or is it a true threat? Who knows? But, of course, that is the point. Right now, Washington is trying to evaluate whether or not to give any weight to this threat. Should the exercises be scaled back or cancelled? After all, we do not want to see Seoul destroyed. I do not believe that the NK's are crazy enough to go to war and be destroyed just because they do not want the US to conduct training exercises with the South Koreans.
The point here, however, is not really abou the crazies in Pyongyang. Rather, it is about the even crazier crazies in Teheran. While it is unlikely that the NK's would commit suicide by nuclear war, it is not hard to imagine the mullahs waiting for the thirteenth Imam to decide to hasten his return with a nuclear exchange. If Iran had nukes, it would be much easier to imagine an escalation to war. And that, of course, would enter into the calculation of every nation with interests in the Middle East. It is also why it is imperative that the world not allow Iran to go nuclear. Would any country decide that the proper policy is to release its mental patients and then arm them with weapons of mass destruction? Allowing Iran to get the bomb is the same thing.
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