On Thu, Feb 10, 2005 at 06:56:44PM -0600, Rebecca wrote: > What has North Korea done by > the way of invading sovereign nations, human rights violations, etc., that > the U.S. hasn't? *raises eyebrows* You haven't heard of the human rights violations that go on in that country? The starvation? Google for 'human rights north korea' and spend a few hours reading. Here are some excerpts from the 2003 US Dept of State report on North Korea: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27775.htm "Heavy military spending, which is estimated at more than one quarter of gross domestic product (GDP), hampered economic development." Yeah, that'll cut into your food budget. "Economic and political conditions have caused at least tens of thousands of persons to flee their homes since the mid-1990s." Ten thousand people over the course of ~10 years have left their homes and gone... somewhere... because they didn't have enough to eat thanks to their communist government. There is nothing that even holds a candle to this in the US. The following three paragraphs are the summary of the meat of the report: "Citizens do not have the right to change their government, and the leadership views most international human rights norms, particularly individual rights, as illegitimate, alien, and subversive to the goals of the State and Party. There continued to be reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and arbitrary detention including many who were held as political prisoners. Prison conditions were harsh, and torture reportedly was common." "Credible eyewitness reports note that pregnant female prisoners underwent forced abortions, and in other cases babies reportedly were killed upon birth in prisons. The constitutional provisions for an independent judiciary and fair trials were not implemented in practice. The regime subjected its citizens to rigid controls over many aspects of their lives. The Penal Code is Draconian, stipulating capital punishment and confiscation of assets for a wide variety of "crimes against the revolution," including defection, attempted defection, slander of the policies of the Party or State, listening to foreign broadcasts, writing "reactionary" letters, and possessing reactionary printed matter." "Citizens are denied freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and association; all forms of cultural and media activities are under the tight control of the KWP. Little outside information reaches the public except that which is approved and disseminated by the Government. The Government restricted freedom of religion, citizens' movement, and worker rights. There were reports of trafficking in women and young girls among refugees and workers crossing the border into China." However much you hate W, however much you despise the man trampling all over the Bill of Rights, current conditions in the US are *nothing* compared to North Korea. To say that the US and NK are currently comparable in terms of human rights violations is, to be frank, BS. Kat