[Binky Bainbridge]

The reasons for invading Iraq was supposedly for "regime change" and the belief held by some that Iraq had WMD. As it turned out Iraq was a paper tiger and the real problems started appearing after George W's mis-timed and inaccurate boast of "mission accomplished".

But what about REAL rogue states, those that actually DO HAVE WMD and who regularly threaten the US. I'm talking about North Korea who seems to get away with a lot more than Saddam ever did. Kim can starve, imprison and torture his people, make all kinds of dangerous threats towards the US but I don't hear Bush or Cheney threatening to invade and bring about regime change there? I wonder why? Double standards? The fact that there are no rich oil reserves in North Korea? Or is it because Kim has nuclear weapons?

Just a few of the threats made by North Korea over the past few years with no military response from Bush & Cheney:

N Korea threatens US with first strike

Pyongyang asserts right to pre-emptive attack as tensions rise over American build-up

This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday February 06 2003 .

North Korea is entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the US rather than wait until the American military have finished with Iraq, the North's foreign ministry told the Guardian yesterday. Warning that the current nuclear crisis is worse than that in 1994, when the peninsula stood on the brink of oblivion, a ministry spokesman called on Britain to use its influence with Washington to avert war.

"The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US."

North Korea Threatens To Wipe Out US Forces In South Korea

- by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Jun 19, 2006

North Korea on Sunday threatened to "mercilessly wipe out" US forces in case of war during a national meeting to mark leader Kim Jong-Il's 42 years' work at the ruling party.

The threat, in a ruling party report carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), came as North Korea was reportedly preparing to test-fire a long-range missile despite strong protests from the United States and its allies.


Choe Thae Bok, a ranking Workers Party official, said Washington was "hell-bent on provocations of war of aggression" in the report to mark the 42nd anniversary of Kim's start at the party, KCNA said.

North Korea Threatens to Reduce South Korea to ‘Ashes’ at Slightest Provocation

By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: March 31, 2008


SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea continued Sunday to lash out at the new conservative government in Seoul, threatening to reduce the South to “ashes” if the South Korean government made the “slightest move” to attack.
The warning, one of the harshest in years, was a response to a statement by Kim Tae-young, the head of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, that his military would strike suspected North Korean nuclear weapons sites if Pyongyang attempted to attack the South with atomic bombs.

North Korea threatens:
U.S. bases 'sea of fire'
South: 690,000 American troops,
2,000 planes to be dispatched to peninsula
Posted: February 05, 2005
WorldNetDaily.com

U.S. military bases will become a "sea of fire" if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula.

That's the latest threat from North Korea, while South Korea says close to 700,000 American troops would be sent to the region.

"There are no limitations in the striking power of our armed force. If U.S. imperialists ignite flames of war, we will strike all their bases first and turn them into a sea of fire," North Korean air force officer Huh Ryong told Pyongyang's Central Radio monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.