

Thinking of moving to North Korea? - churnek
http://followingtherules.com/is-north-korea-a-fun-country-to-live-in/

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phaus
It's amazing that the author acts like no one knows that the North Koreans are
starving to death, it's in the news all the time.

I would love for things in North Korea to change, but you can't do that
without getting rid of their current government. If we tried, we'd end up with
a mess much larger than the one we have in the Middle East.

Like North Korea, Iraq was run by a ruthless dictator who enslaved his people
and squandered the nation's resources. He raped children, used biological
weapons on minorities, tortured and imprisoned millions, and murdered hundreds
of thousands. You don't hear about it much on the news, but there are mass
graves in Iraq similar to the ones used during the holocaust.

Even though the world knows all of this, the U.S. is still looked at like we
are the world's biggest assholes for trying to change things in Iraq.

You might say that's because the Bush administration lied about the evidence.
Did Iraq have nuclear weapons? No. Are nuclear weapons the only thing that
Qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction? Of course not. The U.S. and over
2'dozen of our allies' intelligence agencies believed that Iraq had chemical
and biological weapons before the war started. After the invasion, everyone
else pretended that they had always disagreed with us. In reality, Iraq most
likely did have biological weapons. After all, it's not that hard to
hide/dispose of/ move chemical weapons when you are surrounded by countries
that hate the Western world.

You might also say that things went to shit in Iraq, and that we didn't really
help. Well you might be right about that. It's pretty heartbreaking to see how
fast things got worse after we left. Like a day or so after the last troops
moved out, There was a story in the news about 90 children being rounded up in
Iraq, who were smashed to death with rocks for wearing jeans and t-shirts.

So that brings us back to North Korea. Yea we could dethrone the false
demigod, probably in about 3-6 weeks if we wanted, but without the military
support of the entire world, we'd just end up turning North Korea into another
hell hole.

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philwelch
> The U.S. and over 2'dozen of our allies' intelligence agencies believed that
> Iraq had chemical and biological weapons before the war started.

Yes, but not strongly enough to _start a war over it_ until there was some
other motivation.

Opinions aren't a binary thing. You can have 55% credence that Iraq has
weapons of mass destruction, but at that point it's not necessarily a good
idea to start a war over it. If you have 95% credence it's a different story.

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westward
If only the North Koreans could read about life in 2004 Darfur and then travel
back in time to escape the division of the Korean peninsula in 1953.

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cryowaffle
The author is saying "Read up on North Korea so that your own country doesn't
become like them."

ok...

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ommunist
Hm... But it is the US and the EU who put trade embargoes on buying goods from
North Korea. And this is mainly the reason of why people are starving there.
THis country made a truly heroic effort of producing EVERYTHING itself. By the
way there are thousands of kids like that in Chicago and Bronx.

~~~
tptacek
No there are not thousands of kids like that in Chicago. I assume not the
Bronx either.

Child starvation deaths in DPRK are common. Child starvation deaths in Chicago
are extremely rare and almost uniformly investigated as homicides.

~~~
ommunist
I lived in Chicago in 1999-2000, so I know what I am saying.

~~~
tptacek
I've lived in Chicago all my life (on the south side where I grew up, on the
north side, and now right up on Austin on the west side), and no you don't.
Not to mention that your assertion is so out of whack that you can refute it
with a single Google search.

~~~
ommunist
Hm. You probably never went into Harlem. Googling returns this:
<http://www.mercyhome.org/homeless-youth> 2.3 – 3.5 million Americans
experience homelessness at least once a year, effecting different ages, races
and genders. 1/3 of the total homeless population families with children. 1 in
50 (1.5 million) of the total homeless population are estimated to be under
the age of 6. 1.3 - 1.6 million unaccompanied or runaway youth annually.
50,000 youth experience long-term homelessness (six month or more) each year.

