Aknauta
01-14-2003, 12:44 AM
townhall.com
Mona Charen (archive)
(printer-friendly version)
January 14, 2003
A cold war time bomb
Discussions of North Korea stress the "weirdness" of the regime, its isolated character and its peculiar obsessions. Questions are raised about the sanity of Kim Jong-Il, and the "cult of personality" is offered as evidence of the strangeness of the North Korean government. But is the regime really so unfamiliar?
The collapse of communism left four vicious regimes still standing -- China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea. Despite their partial embrace of capitalism, China and Vietnam retain their communist character: They are police states wherein conformity is mandatory, liberty nonexistent and cruelty triumphant. Cuba and North Korea are among the worst places on earth.
Analysts struggle to place North Korea among the post-Cold War challenges to the United States, like Islamofascism. It doesn't fit. North Korea is a live virus left over after the plague of communism was over. But even a virus preserved only in a petri dish retains the power to kill.
It is unlikely that any human idea has ever cost quite so many human lives as communism. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20030114.shtml)
Mona Charen (archive)
(printer-friendly version)
January 14, 2003
A cold war time bomb
Discussions of North Korea stress the "weirdness" of the regime, its isolated character and its peculiar obsessions. Questions are raised about the sanity of Kim Jong-Il, and the "cult of personality" is offered as evidence of the strangeness of the North Korean government. But is the regime really so unfamiliar?
The collapse of communism left four vicious regimes still standing -- China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea. Despite their partial embrace of capitalism, China and Vietnam retain their communist character: They are police states wherein conformity is mandatory, liberty nonexistent and cruelty triumphant. Cuba and North Korea are among the worst places on earth.
Analysts struggle to place North Korea among the post-Cold War challenges to the United States, like Islamofascism. It doesn't fit. North Korea is a live virus left over after the plague of communism was over. But even a virus preserved only in a petri dish retains the power to kill.
It is unlikely that any human idea has ever cost quite so many human lives as communism. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20030114.shtml)