"Simply Unacceptable"

[Content Note: War.]

After the Pentagon assessed "with 'moderate confidence,' that North Korea has learned how to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be delivered by a ballistic missile," US Secretary of State John Kerry played down the assessment but warned North Korea this morning that "it would be a 'huge mistake' to launch a medium-range missile and said the United States would never accept the reclusive country as a nuclear power."

Kerry, who flies to China on Saturday and to Japan on Sunday, said that if North Korea's 30-year-old leader, Kim Jong-un, proceeded with a launch, "he will be choosing, willfully, to ignore the entire international community".

"I would say ahead of time that it is a huge mistake for him to choose to do that because it will further isolate his country and further isolate his people, who frankly are desperate for food, not missile launches."

...The North has issued weeks of shrill threats of an impending war following the imposition of U.N. sanctions in response to its third nuclear test in February. Kerry said the threats were "simply unacceptable" by any standard.

"We are all united in the fact that North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power," he said.

Hmm. You know, I agree that countries should not invest vast amounts of money on defense when there are struggling and hungry people among their populaces, and I also agree that military belligerence by national leaders endangers average citizens, and I further agree that nuclear weaponry is unacceptable.

And I invite the leaders of the United States to significantly decrease the defense budget and reallocate funds to the social safety net; stop using drones; and direct some of its energy to nuclear disarmament in the US.

Then maybe telling North Korea to do the same will not look like a hypocritical joke, even to this USian.

I know all the Very Important Reasons that the US is super special. I also know there is no chance of that shit happening. I'm not saying it's justifiable to treat your people badly and endanger them and threaten or harm people in other countries because bigger countries do it.

It's just, you know, fuck. Doctor, heal thyself.