[GAsux]

Heres the thing about DU rounds. The reason DU rounds are effective is because once they pierce the armor, they bounce around inside like a ping pong ball (dont ask me to explain the science of it because I don't know, I just know that's what they do). They are more effective because you get more bang for your buck than a round that pierces straight through.

As for the effects of DU, for every documented study that you could provide which says causes all the horrible things you've said, to the scale you've proposed, I can provide studies that say there is no effect. As far as I am concerned, that's a push. It's not clear either way. I'll even go so far as to concede that I'm sure DU is not healthy. Niether is smog caused by cars, which can be tied to millions of deaths every year. I'm quire sure that people aren't falling over and dying every day as a result of spent DU shells.


I think there are a lot of reasons Korea is being handled differently,, and I'll readily concede that oil is one of them. N. Korea plays nowhere near the important economic role Iraq does. Further, I am willing to bet that the administration is taking N. Koreas actions as a bluff. One might argue that the Koreans might think they have nothing to lose. That's true. But they also have nothing to gain. In the long term, initiating a conflict will do them no good.

Further, a closer study of the condition of N. Korea is quite telling. They do in fact have relatively sophisticated ballistic missiles. However, the ability and will to fight of their "million man army" is vastly overrated, as most experts agree. A majority of those million are foreced to serve, get paid little or nothing, and are freezing and starving to death. Logistically they are not capable of carrying out the kind of campaign necessary to do any real damage. If the Koreans moved right now, they'd be in Seoul in a few hours. A few hours later, they'd be dead.

So anyway, again, I'm not trying to sound like Ronnie here. I'm simply trying to make the case that between Ronnie's blind conservatism and Ranxers sometimes fanatical liberality, there exists some middle ground.