The U.S. has had a steadfast commitment to South Korea’s security and well-being; building and maintaining security arrangements that assure the stability of this volatile region, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them poses a significant challenge to the ability of the United States.

North Korea has aggressively sought to increase its nuclear technology and missile capabilitiy which in itself constitutes a pressing threat to regional stability. Not only has North Korea been committed to acquiring nuclear weapons either through indigenous development or by covertly acquiring enough fissile material to produce them but they may have also initiated biological and chemical warfare programs. It is now possible that North Korea may have developed up to three or four nuclear weapons as well as a biological and chemical capabilty.

(Why has North Korea made the announcement now? How did they, an extremely poor regime get the funds for the development of this programme? Is it possible that they have sold/exchanged fissible material to other regimes? And if so, has this material made its way to the Middle East? Barring Iraq, is it now possible that Syria and Iran are further forward in their nuclear programmes than we believe? Are these thoughts dark and intricate imaginings of an apprehensive mind?)

In the short term, the threat of conventional war against the South remains and in the long term, the entire security of the Far East is at risk if North Korea has obtained a nuclear capability because other nations in the region such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc., will look towards their own nuclear deterrence capability which will directly impinge on the security in the region.

The North Korean's have consistently portrayed the American's as being evil and they themselves as being brave patriots. They are emotional and manipulative. They play on anti-American sentiments and propagate these sentiments successfully. Such words are taken as being the truth by the North Korean population. Internally, they are winning this propaganda war. If sanctions are instituted against North Korea because of their nuclear, chemical and biological programmes (and this may be entirely dependent on the Chinese attitude) we can expect to hear some inflammatory speeches. Will such sanctions provide an adequate safeguard against renewed North Korean aggression or will it force North Korea's hand?

There have been some unusual exchanges of rhetoric between the US and North Korea in recent years. America's last approach resulted in a brush-off and North Korea's dislike of America's insistence has been so pointed and undisguised that I begin to wonder if anything can be achieved. It is a moment of delicate balance. This is not a situation that you can solve without risk. Certainly, there will be considerable risk if North Korea has achieved nuclear capability. I’ve suspected North Korea of duplicity on a number of occasions and have been suspect that they have they been playing America along until they developed their capability.

I've gone over the details and weighed the pros and cons and the risk and chances. The situation South Korea faces remains difficult. The very hope of survival in South Korea rests on the assumption that South Korea will not be alone in the event of an outbreak of hostilities since behind South Korea stands the immense military power of the US. All their most exhaustive contingency planning has been done on that basis. North Korea knows all this. The US knows that North Korea will not risk throwing everything at South Korea. North Korea knows that the US will not hesitate to come to South Korea's aid. It is barely credible that North Korea will risk their own annihilation.

If North Korea suspects some impending action then this may tilt the balance and they could throw everything at South Korea. The Americans would only need to strike once against North Korea to annihilate North Korea entirely. A North Korean strike against South Korea would probably be mortal to North Korea. It would be similar to a string of a bee which dies through its own stinging such a situation may sound far-fetched but it coulod now become more of a possibility and fallout would affect the South East Asian region.

Today we face what is probably the greatest challenge history has ever known. There never has been a time when millions of people are more desperately in need of faith, hope and courage and peace of mind. The world is in turmoil and has tilted out of balance and overshadowing it are some ominous images. There's something terribly disquieting about what is happening. I try to shake off my negativism and attempt to not allow these concerns to dominate my life. I know that fear is the great destroyer and I recall what Michel de Montaigne observed 'A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears'.

The UN is stretched tight in peace keeping operations throughout the world. They are, under a lot of pressure. It is my conviction and belief that we must not bow to terror. Of course, there are plenty of politicians and people who believe that such countries are not worth the life of a single peace keeping soldier. There are those who believe that we should not become involved and we should let them sort it out amongst themselvesHow can we live with the slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children? We've condemned thousands of people to a violent death by our own lethargy. I despise our inactivity. We cannot abandon these people to their fate. If we continue to go ahead as we are, then we will be looking at more potential genocide in the years ahead. That is the tragedy and the irony of the situation. How does this look to the rest of the world? What are we indicating to others by abandoning the Congo to its fate? Are we not showing that the sacrifice of many means little to us if they are of no import? We have to seriously think about it. We have to decide what we are. Do we have the courage and the principle of justice for all men? Or will we continue to be self-satisfied and self-centred? We have to be prepared to take preventative action and if that is too late, remedial action, on a small or large scale to avert such disasters.

What can we expect in the next decade or so? It is my belief, we will see similar scenarios being enacted throughout the world and thousands being driven from their homes from as far afield as the former Soviet Union, North Africa and Latin America. We will see mass flights of homeless refugees flooding across borders into Southern Europe with the rapid de stabilisation of neighbouring European countries as they attempt to deal with this flood. We will see States fall into anarchy and the emergence of further armed rogue nuclear states such as Iran and North Korea, State sponsored terrorism and the further spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons This resulting chaos will not mean the end of the world, but the world, to a large extent, will change.

The Israelis are terribly xenophobic. It would seem that the Israelis have woken to the mood on the streets and the dangers of Palestinian autonomy. Any man will listen to reason for a while, but when the passions rise, reason is quickly forgotten. There are wrongs done on both sides. Militant Jews create a tension in the country accusing the Israeli Government of giving away their birthright, their land and that the land belongs to them and not to the Arabs nor the Christians. They continue to focus attention on the morality of their cause as they attempt to force the Israeli Government into a more militant position. Israel's stance remains a threat to peace. Land grabs have undercut the peace process and the West Bank and Gaza continues to seethe with hostility until the inevitable explosion occurs. Enmity grows and remains a festering cancer. It will escalate things beyond belief. It will be the spark that ignites the powder keg. Killing and more killing. Will they get too exhausted to kill each other any more? Can they reach peace?

The Islamic Jihad do not believe it is murder to fight for what has been stolen from them. I hate the violence. I think such people are madmen. Certainly there is injustice, but it can never be changed by action such as the recent bombing. They go beyond morals, pity and all reason. It is most stark and tragic, but how do we change it? I have an overwhelming sense of the reality and fragility of the peace process. Somehow I am caught within its vortex, looking in and knowing. Seeing so much, watching and the knowledge pains me. It goes beyond concept and intellect, beyond what analysis knows or imagines. I see beyond the phenomenal and contingent world to the eternal and non-contingent. Peace will only emerge after so much death.

The land is only one of the sacrifices that will be asked of the Jews. And each sacrifice to come, each pain, each trouble overcome will make them stronger. Until they move forward in their acceptance, discord will remain. The extent of human stupidity remains infinite! I guess, if anything, we have to fear ourselves if we have any wisdom because we tell ourselves the most plausible lies, lies we want to believe. The Israelis need to walk two steps behind themselves and watch everything they do. Perhaps then they would understand the true meaning of humility!

It may be a lengthy process to ferret out the true culprits of the terrorism in Bali. What is frightening is the professionalism with which it has been carried out.

It’s been widely believed that terrorists can be beaten by conventional means albeit of a sophisticated variety. Have they now gone one step further? The evidence is compelling. They’ve become increasingly experienced and prepared. The attack wasn’t random - it was the work of a highly organised group. Is this a start of a grand strategy and perhaps a part of a larger scenario within the Asian region? Is this an opening salvo or another pinprick around a periphery of a storm? What is the key to the strategy if one exists? Is it a crude attempt at provocation or retaliation?

There has been some unusual activity recently in the ME but is it connected? The atmosphere has become paranoid, almost psychopathic and we have a tendency to be indiscriminate when focusing our attention. The American’s are being extremely circumspect, are particularly concerned and continue to remain highly tense. There is a lot of uncertainty. There are so many questions, which remain unanswered. Local investigations have been initiated to attempt to identify the individuals concerned. At the moment the they are concentrating on links to Al Queda as well as internal homogeneous groups.

If it is a home-grown act of terrorism how will the Indonesians deal with it? There’s no doubt that there are some serious internal problems arising from within Indonesia itself, yet such a bombing could easily be the work of an outside terrorist group. There are so many tracks to follow. There’s nothing except a still-huge mass of contradictions, neurosis and fear. I sense confusion and conflict. It remains a matter of considerable concern and the atmosphere is tense. Fear isn’t very far away and like the wings of a new butterfly, passions are spreading out, stiffening into a hard resolve. The situation is very disturbing. Each day brings a new set of problems and a greater puzzle to be solved. Every effort is being made to quickly and fully determine the matter and to determine culpability. They are fitting the pieces together into a composite which may help to explain what happened but it will require not only time but also a great deal of study and reflection to sort out. What horrors will be revealed and what will remain hidden?

I don’t envy those, who will be asking the same questions and who are hoping to find the answers which will not easily be resolved. With all our sophisticated technology, satellites and listening devices worldwide we seem to lack knowledge. On the outside, looking in, it doesn’t look good whatever way you look at it and given the circumstances one has a tendency to lean towards an an outside hand in the event. I sense a certain unpleasantness surrounding the event and lurid images flicker in my head. A haunting melody, full of strange harmonies, erratic rhythms and discordant notes making me feel unsettled and uneasy.

The above is my own impression; everything is deduction and may be extremely probable, but is not certain. Tangled plots and endless conspiracies, leading to the inevitable question of who is using whom? I'm beginning to see connections, links, patterns everywhere. Have I become trapped in the centre of the web - my imagination? It is possible that local Islamic extremists may have advanced the plot on their own, but I urge caution in this respect. It is my belief that it has come from some other direction. It is a Machiavellian business, a warfare in the darkness with few clues to distinguish friend from foe.

Finding out who is behind it and how it connects to the threat received by American intelligence is a tall, but not impossible order. You see something you are intended to see and then, while you are congratulating yourself on your shrewdness, the second trick, the real sting goes right by you. No one knows what Islamic militant groups such as Al Queda are plotting they are enigmatic as a cat's eye. What may be obvious now is what we are intended to see. There is a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that an illusion may have been created. The sun, half hidden by blushing clouds, shadows.

Islamic extremists are like a hydra, you cut off one of its heads and more pop out from nowhere. There are no membership lists, no cards they carry. I find it difficult to understand the lengths they go to propagate their brand of violence and hatred. I doubt whether we have touched the core of the problem, like the Indonesians so many countries have failed to resolve economic, social problems and endemic corruption which remains rife in many countries throughout the Middle East and Asia. It provides a fertile breeding ground for extremism and fundamentalism. Such groups exploit the situation to their benefit. It's not an isolated phenomena anymore. It's spreading like a virus. They'll carry the revolution with them in an unbridgeable schism.