North Korea threatens nuclear strike on US

Center for Security Policy ^ | Friday, March 15, 2002

[Real Cynic No More]

"Though his fictional scenario is not exactly parallel, in that it involves a Middle East sanctioned nuclear strike at the U.S., read Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears and you may think otherwise."

I thought that the individual behind the attack in The Sum Of All Fears was an individual and not a government, and that he did not have government support. The situation with North Korea is much different.

[Dukie]

It's been awhile since I read Clancy's book but I believe the instigator was an Iranian Imam in the vein of Ruhollah Khomeni. If not the head of state, certainly the power behind the puppet.

Terrorist organizations change traditional concepts of warfare in that they serve to lessen the role of the state as an object of reprisal. You're correct that North Korea represents the more traditional situation, but if we believe that it is immoral to vaporize "innocent" citizens because of actions by Kim Jong Il, then we're more apt to absorb such a strike and go after the man & his cohorts.