Both North Korea and Israel are dangerous flash points which can start a perilous war the world has yet to see.
Let us look at North Korea first. Kim Jong-il is one sick puppy. He is in poor health, old and dangerously eccentric. He is bent upon making North Korea a big nuclear power and it does not matter to him if his people have shelter over their heads or food to eat. It has become a strange country reflecting Kim Jong-il's eccentricities and it looks that no one even smiles in North Korea, they look like a people from another planet. Kim Jong-il's arms build up is making South Korea, Japan, and many other countries very nervous. If Kim Jong-il takes some erratic action of attacking another country, then world watch out, it is going to be a very perilous war.
Equally volatile and dangerous, if not more so, is Israel. Especially under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister and Avigdor Lieberman as a Foreign Minister. Netanyahu is known to be hawkish and not ready to accept any agreement which will involve the creation of an independent Palestinian state. His recent statements that settlements will continue in the West Bank is making the Obama administration very nervous . As far as Lieberman is concerned, he is "foreign" to any negotiations and would like Palestinians pushed out of Gaza and the West Bank to neighbouring Arab countries, or just plain obliterate the Palestinians. This does not look good for Middle East peace.
What is the most troubling about Israel is that successive US administrations have armed Israel to the teeth. Israel wants that no neighbouring countries should have any weapon and if a Palestinian kid has a rock to throw at an Israel military tank, then he is "armed and dangerous" and must be dealt with, even killed.
Moreover, Israel has over 100 nuclear war heads thanks to successive US administrations however any neighbouring countries dare not experiment with developing a nuclear arsenal. For that reason Israel made aerial attacks on Syria and Iraq in the past to destroy their suspected nuclear plants. Similar threats are being made to Iran. To make the area nuclear free it is extremely important that Israel is nuclear free too, otherwise Iran and Syria and other Arab countries will try to arm themselves with nuclear weapons to protect themselves from Israel. Israel cannot forever behave like a master in the Middle East and dictate terms. Furthermore, Israel needs to pull back to pre-1967 boundaries if it wants peace. Israel also has to let Palestinians have their independence. It is a simple equation of human nature. No nation or people can be subjugated indefinitely.
The Arab world is already on edge because of the Bush administration's disastrous policies, especially the invasion of Iraq. Any actions by Israel will be throwing gasoline on the fire.
If the world, especially the influential nations like the US, Russia and China, do not take care of these problems then we are in for a rough ride or a big explosion where nothing will be left to ride anymore and it will be a one big crash and burn catastrophe. We need to do something about the Kim Jong-ils, Benjamin Netanyahus and Avigdor Liebermans of this world.
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