She's Got a Little List
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says her department is considering whether to punish North Korea for its continued development of nuclear weapons by putting it back on the official list of "state sponsors of terrorism." But if this list is to have any credibility, shouldn't it be based on, you know, state sponsorship of terrorism? "Obviously we would want to see recent evidence of their support for international terrorism," Clinton said on ABC's This Week. The New York Times notes:
That evidence may be hard to come by. While North Korea has engaged in missile sales, it has not been linked to terrorism activity for many years. And North Korea's restoration to the list would be largely symbolic, because it already faces numerous economic sanctions.
Here's a list that makes more sense.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Can’t we just have a list of countries we currently laugh at and turn to other more reasonable countries and make curly motions with our fingers next to our heads? North Korea would be a permanent member of that list.
Colbert putting them on his Threat-down would pack more of a punch, I think. I don’t see them displacing “bears”, though.
I have requested that the UN Security Council place North Korea on special, double secret probation.
My grocery list has more global relevance.
happy to see a Gilbert & Sullivan reference. y’all tend to 70’s & 80’s lyrics too often.
“Terrorism” is just a word. Since when do words have distinct meanings as far as the government is concerned?
Way to invoke Gilbert and Sullivan in the post title.
“And, finally, I looked around our world and I thought, you know, we are in just so many deep holes that everybody had better grab a shovel and start digging out.”
–Hillary Clinton, explaining why she accepted appointment as secretary of state, “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” June 7
Hills handling of the NK crisis should surely get her canned at some point. what a huge fuckup
Maybe they should just revive the “Axis of Evil” list.
It is unsettling for such a wacko like Kim Il et. all to have a nuke, but thus far all they have done is sabre rattling.
When it comes to killing innocent people in other countries to achieve political objectives, the conventional arsenal of the U.S. D.O.D. killed about 30,000 during the intial invasion of Iraq, and seems to kill women and children on their way to weddings on a regular basis in Afghanistan.
If we could put Osama Bin Laden, George Bush, and Kim all on trial as terrorists, that would be fair.
“When it comes to killing innocent people in other countries to achieve political objectives, the conventional arsenal of the U.S. D.O.D. killed about 30,000 during the intial invasion of Iraq, and seems to kill women and children on their way to weddings on a regular basis in Afghanistan.” [citation needed]
What’s next? A strongly worded letter? Heaven forbid.
Hans Blix: Let me in, or else.
Kim Jong Il: Or else what?
Hans Blix: Or else we will be very angry with you… and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.
Tarylcabot beat me out by two minutes in referencing G&S. I was busy finding a YouTube link.