Hey Mikhail, great reply!
I actually went and read the Earth at Night thread. I was really interesting, why did you guys stop it?
I'm afraid that you seriously overestimate the effectiveness of American anti-missile systems. In testing, they had a success rate of something like 2%. In other words, even if you fire 50 ABMs at an incoming missile, you still can't be sure of hitting it. :nervous:
I have also heard that American ABMs were not effective. But I am sure that they perfected them after the Cold War. It’s probably something we don’t really hear about. Furthermore, after the ABM treaties with the Soviets (which limited each country to 2 ABM fields), the race for developing them have stopped. But the treaties covered only USA and USSR- so all further secret research has been probably moved to Israel. I am sure that the country which cares about its security better than any other state would come up with something interesting, with so many enemies around it.
All true. The thing is, the US is quite capable of playing the card hypocritically - they claimed that they were going into Iraq to remove a dangerous, dictatorial regieme, while basing their troops in Soudi Arabia - a pretty nasty place to live by all accounts. (Who wants to lay odds on a Saudi spotting this and argueing with me?! 
)
You’re right about the Saudi. I don’t see a harder violator of human rights in the region than this country. And the most screwed up thing about it is that the regime implies Islamic law to its people. But majority of more than 1000 princes, when on the airplane to Europe of the US, take off their white clothes. When abroad they drink, smoke, do drugs, spend time with prostitutes- basically do everything which their own government throws people into prisons for. As a Muslim, I find this very disrespectful to the religion.
The state of East German politics was quite different to that of North Korea. Also, the East German population wanted unification, while the North Korean people are fed propaganda from a very young age to prevent just that.
Well, I was about to disagree before I read through the Earth and Night forum. I always thought of N Korea as something similar to Iran. I’ve visited Tehran last year and was surprised to see alcohol and prostitution everywhere, satellite dishes in peoples’ back yards. “Baywatch” was actually the most popular show. Propoganda in Iran has been totally unsuccessful, and I actually thought that the case is the same in North Korea. If it was, then I would conclude that the North Koreans strive for reunification with the prosperous South.
I'd suggest that you read an old thread called Earth at Night before we go any further on the justification of this. I don't think that old military defeats would seriously worry the US now - beating the heck out of the armys of Iraq and Afganistan was childs play, and their only real worry if they went into North Korea would be the China factor.
Yes, China factor is the biggest. But American “record” in Asia is not forgotten. For the Americans, especially the older population which remembers the wars, Afghanistan and Iraq are very different. Afghanistan was a direct threat to US security after 9/11, while Iraq was sold to the Americans as if they had WMD. N Korea hasn’t been a direct threat to mainland US.
Old military defeats probably do not bother the falks in Department of Defense, but for average Americans IMO it is still a major psychological issue. With 17,000 US soldiers killed in Viet Nam I think that the people are against involvements in Asia, especially since there is no real and clear threat.
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