Did Lindsey Graham slip here?
Lindsey Graham may want these words back even if they ring true. These are the types of phrases that is likely to be used by North Korea as a justification for their nuclear stance.
Lindsey Graham was recently interviewed by CNN’s Wolff Blitzer about North Korea’s assertion that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb. Subsequently it was determined that said attempt was likely not true or it was unsuccessful.
An atomic bomb works by compressing a core of uranium or plutonium until nuclei in the core split, causing an enormous explosion. A boosted atomic bomb is similar, but a tiny amount of tritium at the core makes the weapon more destructive. North Korea could have tested either of these types of bombs on Wednesday.
The White House said Wednesday that initial data from its monitoring stations in Asia were “not consistent” with North Korea’s claim that the test was of a hydrogen bomb, a far more powerful and technically sophisticated weapon.
What exactly is Graham saying here?
“I am not here to beat on President Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, or the Congress, or the world at large,” Lindsey Graham said. “The whole world has failed to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The regime believes it’s better for them to have a weapon of mass destruction to ensure their survivability than it is to do business with the world. And they are probably right about that.”
If you are a country that feels rightly or wrongly that the world is against you or out to get you, isn’t a statement articulated by an otherwise warmongering neocon going to get your attention? Those words are likely true though generally not said. Regimes like Iran attempt to get as many concessions to not go all out nuclear for either their survival or to prevent all out capitulation to a world that considers them the preeminent enemy.
Words matter.