Annan Actually Says Something

Kofi Annan says the world is "sleepwalking" to nuclear proliferation.

(unrelated note - if any of you pronounce that "nucular", you can just leave now)

Addressing the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, he said that without moves to halt proliferation, more and more states were likely to seek nuclear weapons which could also fall into non-state hands.

OK, so if they exist, people can misuse them. Fair enough.

"The international community seems almost to be sleepwalking down that latter path -- not by conscious choice, but rather through miscalculation, sterile debate and paralysis," Annan said. He was speaking against a backdrop of international tension over North Korea's nuclear program and Western fears that Iran may be trying to develop nuclear arms.

North Korea says it is preparing to test a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead as far as Alaska in what the United States, South Korea and Japan have called a grave threat to regional security.

First off I have to wonder - why would you target Alaska? It's the third least populous state, and the odds of actually killing anyone are smallest, I'd reckon, if you don't count Wyoming. So it would just be to piss us off. Great.

Second I have to wonder out loud, again, why we went to war against the country that screamed that it didn't have WMDs, instead of the one screaming that it does.

No, I don't want to go to war with North Korea. I don't want to go to war with anyone, really. I'm just having one of those days where the war in Iraq seems even more stupid to me than ever.

Yesterday the buzzwords seemd to be "cut and run". "The democrats want us to cut and run!", I heard, as I passed the CNN-spouting TV in the cafeteria. Well, I want to cut and run. I do. Civil war? Fine. It's not like we're stopping them from killing each other now, and is it really our business to do so?

I mentioned this to my dad, and he says that we can't - the situation could escalate more crazily than it already has with no controls at all in the region. He says that the Democrats should stop talking about getting out and start focusing loudly on how the "cheap easy war" has turned into an occupational situation that we're committed to for generations to come, now. I concede that's a pretty good idea, and told him I'd put it in my blog.

Mission Accomplished.