SB and I had a lively debate over former basketball player Dennis Rodman's visit to North Korea. SB said that maybe the effusive Rodman could do some good with his goodwill while I thought that he had truly earned his nickname of "the worm."
I requested special dispensation from Godwin's law and then compared Rodman's visit to how we would regard a friendly visit to Hitler. Then I thought more about it and amended my comparison to Stalin. Yes, I see a lot of similarity between the "Supreme Leader" and the "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," and I would (and do) condemn any worm who would befriend the leader of a state with that kind of human rights record.
We then moved the debate to why I felt justified calling Kim Jong-un a terrorist. SB says no but I say that the country's incompetence with missiles and nuclear weapons doesn't exclude it from being labelled as a terrorist state when the intent is to use threats of violence for coercion. That guy who failed in his attempt to blow up a plane by lighting his shoes on fire may have been an idiot, but he was still practicing terrorism.
SB thinks that the goal of North Korea is not to sow fear and therefore it isn't a terrorist state. He had more to add but it's my blog so I get to give myself more space for my argument. However, if you would like to back up SB, you may do so in the comments.
I requested special dispensation from Godwin's law and then compared Rodman's visit to how we would regard a friendly visit to Hitler. Then I thought more about it and amended my comparison to Stalin. Yes, I see a lot of similarity between the "Supreme Leader" and the "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," and I would (and do) condemn any worm who would befriend the leader of a state with that kind of human rights record.
We then moved the debate to why I felt justified calling Kim Jong-un a terrorist. SB says no but I say that the country's incompetence with missiles and nuclear weapons doesn't exclude it from being labelled as a terrorist state when the intent is to use threats of violence for coercion. That guy who failed in his attempt to blow up a plane by lighting his shoes on fire may have been an idiot, but he was still practicing terrorism.
SB thinks that the goal of North Korea is not to sow fear and therefore it isn't a terrorist state. He had more to add but it's my blog so I get to give myself more space for my argument. However, if you would like to back up SB, you may do so in the comments.
Comments
However, it isn't too big a stretch from there to also deem, for example, Israel to be a terrorist state given their nuclear capability and their apparent complete disregard for international opinion in their approach to the whole "middle east problem".
"Terrorist state" and "repressive state" often overlap, but they're two quite different things...
No question that we can agree on that!