Let me begin this article by saying forthrightly and enequivocally that "I am glad North Korea has nuclear weapons."
     I am a veteran of the Korean War, having served as a Chaplain's Assistant during the Korean War. When I returned to my native state of Alabama it was difficult for me to register to vote because I am an African American.
      Four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for having refused to give her bus seat to a white person, eighteen African American leaders in Montgomery organized the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to provide leadership for the bus boycott. Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected president and I, Uriah J  Fields, was elected secretary of the MIA. I was pastor of the Bell Street Baptist Church that was bombed and King's home was bombed by racists during the bus boycott.
    I have mentioned these things to declare that I have as much right to express my views on the United States-North Korea "war of words," that could easily become an actual war as any American, including the President of the United States. This is my America too.
       During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (Russia) that last for a quarter of a century neither country fired a single shot at each other. On the contrary, the United State preemptively declared war on Iraq, even though the Iraq leader Saddam Hussein and the United States inteligence said "Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destructoin" (WMD). Why was there no war between the United States and Russia? It was because they both had nuclear weapons. President Theodore Roosevelt said, "Speak softly and carry the big stick." But he did not say what happens when "the BIG stick meets the BIG stick," as was the case with the United States and Russia.
   The only reason the United States has not declared war on North Korea is because North Korea has nuclear weapons. Any fool knows that declaring such war would bring death to hundreds of thousands of South Koreans and tens of thousands of the 30,000 American soldiers in South Korea stationed near the 38 parallel which separates North Korea and South Korea.
     Americans should be glad that North Korea has nuclear weapons that will likely prevent the death of American soldiers unlike what happened in Iraq where 4,488 Ameicans soldiers and 1,569 U.S. contractors were killed, accomplishing nothing of redeeming value.  Many more Americans were injured that will cost, according to a New York (Reuters) study, in addition to the $1,7 trillion of the war and additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest. Another cost of the Iraq War that is yet unknown is the birthing and deveoping of a new group known as  ISIl, that is already causing havoc in the Middle East and beyond.
    I call upon the United States, and the at least five other nuclear nations, to divest themselves of nuclear weapons and to do it at the same time. This should be the priority business of the United Nations.
   There should be one American, hopefully more than one, who at this time, will declare publicly and with a resounding voice that North Korea should be treated the same as any other nation with nuclear weapons. Obviously, there is enough insanity among nations possessing nuclear weapons to go around. I choose to be that one American or e pluribus unum, one of many who will declare, even demand, that America: "Not declare war on  North Korea!" I believe that America, not North Korea, will be the first to start the war, if there is a war, involving the two countries.
     Americans, it is time to realize that we owe North Korea credit for having kept alive a number of our young men today. When have you last heard of a General being killed in war?
    I rest my case in the hope that I have made my argument, as a former president said, "perfectly clear." No,
"I am not a crook?"

Copyright 2017 by Uriah J. Fields