Sanctions Schmanctions: Condemning the Innocent to Death
So, I hear now that the US was successful in initiating sanctions against North Korea. And on the news the other day, I saw the South Koreans embargoing shipments of rice to North Korea to feed its starving population. Let me point out how well sanctions did against Saddam Hussein. All they did was drive the Iraqi middle class into poverty and allow the wholesale disrepair of Iraqi infrastructure. What in the world does the US and UN think sanctions will do (or mean) to North Korea?
It is clear that the North Korean government does not care about its people. It let 2 million of them starve to death just a few years ago, so it does not seem that sanctions are going to do much to curb the situation there. If foreign governments shut down their bank accounts, all the Korean leaders will do is go into a cash economy with Russia and China who still show some support and provide them with oil.
Why are the Chinese and Russians so happy to continue to support Kim? Well, look at what happened to Iraq when the US kicked out the Hussein regime. Total chaos. Neither China nor Russia, or South Korea for that matter can stand that kind of situation on their borders. It is ultimately too destabilizing. For them it is better to tolerate control of a despotic Stalinist dictator than to have the country and its millions of inhabitants devolve into chaos. So what are the options, realistically speaking?
At this point, I do not believe that Kim is willing to listen to counsel of the Russians and the Chinese. The guy is not living in the real world and has never had to live in the real world. This is a real dilemma where you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. The situation in North Korea should be a lesson for the entire world. When you let a despot get into control, you basically giving up any right to be able to deal rationally with that regime. Megalomaniacs rarely listen to common sense because that is not something that is inherent in their make-up.
So all this talk of sanctions, well go ahead and talk. They will have absolutely no effect. About all you can do is try to support the local population with humanitarian aid so that the common people feel that, even if their government has forsaken them, that the rest of the world has not. The only thing that works in terms of regime change is when the people living there actually change it themselves. We cannot do it for them, just like we could not do it for the Iraqis. I say support the people, and they will see who their friends are and what they have to do to make their lives livable once again. Do not impose the kind of disastrous sanctions that were imposed on Iraq. No one in power was affected, only the common person on the street and their children were. If you take reduce the money flowing to the leaders, they just bleed it from their people and the resources they would have spent on them. So basically sanctions are a death knell for the real North Koreans living in the country side, in the towns, and cities. It is a genocidic solution that does nothing to change the government or its frame of mind.
Stop the sanctions!!!!! Support the common person and let them know we care.
It is clear that the North Korean government does not care about its people. It let 2 million of them starve to death just a few years ago, so it does not seem that sanctions are going to do much to curb the situation there. If foreign governments shut down their bank accounts, all the Korean leaders will do is go into a cash economy with Russia and China who still show some support and provide them with oil.
Why are the Chinese and Russians so happy to continue to support Kim? Well, look at what happened to Iraq when the US kicked out the Hussein regime. Total chaos. Neither China nor Russia, or South Korea for that matter can stand that kind of situation on their borders. It is ultimately too destabilizing. For them it is better to tolerate control of a despotic Stalinist dictator than to have the country and its millions of inhabitants devolve into chaos. So what are the options, realistically speaking?
At this point, I do not believe that Kim is willing to listen to counsel of the Russians and the Chinese. The guy is not living in the real world and has never had to live in the real world. This is a real dilemma where you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. The situation in North Korea should be a lesson for the entire world. When you let a despot get into control, you basically giving up any right to be able to deal rationally with that regime. Megalomaniacs rarely listen to common sense because that is not something that is inherent in their make-up.
So all this talk of sanctions, well go ahead and talk. They will have absolutely no effect. About all you can do is try to support the local population with humanitarian aid so that the common people feel that, even if their government has forsaken them, that the rest of the world has not. The only thing that works in terms of regime change is when the people living there actually change it themselves. We cannot do it for them, just like we could not do it for the Iraqis. I say support the people, and they will see who their friends are and what they have to do to make their lives livable once again. Do not impose the kind of disastrous sanctions that were imposed on Iraq. No one in power was affected, only the common person on the street and their children were. If you take reduce the money flowing to the leaders, they just bleed it from their people and the resources they would have spent on them. So basically sanctions are a death knell for the real North Koreans living in the country side, in the towns, and cities. It is a genocidic solution that does nothing to change the government or its frame of mind.
Stop the sanctions!!!!! Support the common person and let them know we care.
