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October 12, 2006
Notes from Ferdy - Kim Jong-Il Lives, Unfortunately
North Korea's dictator is now making threats. Here's the latest, via My Way News
If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures,
In an attempt to emulate the United Nations, this threat is unspecific. This indicates that Kim Jong-Il is completely insane, because one does not emulate the United Nations if you're trying to scare someone.
The fact that Kim is insane is exactly the problem. Japan, which has lived within striking distance of China for decades, is downright skittish about this new threat. Most ominous of all, the French are not worried, which is as close as we can get to definitive proof that we're in real trouble.
The shape of that trouble is that we've now demonstrated that our commitment to nuclear non-proliferation has no teeth. There is nothing to stop anyone from becoming an atomic power. As a result, we need to come up with a way to defend ourselves from this threat. The Democrats have their plan, which is to be serious without being threatening. On the other side of the aisle, President Bush has called for sanctions. The idea of sanctions is that we prevent a country's citizens from getting access to food or weapons in the hopes they get really mad and stage a revolution. This is supposedly how the French Revolution happened, but it's a different world now, and when the People stormed the Bastille, they weren't facing machine guns. I wouldn't hold out any hope for this option.
The third option is a missile defense system. While missile defense against a concerted attack by a major power like China or Russia is going to be dicey at best, the capabilites of a neophyte nuclear power are a lot more limited, and anti-missile systems stationed in Japan and South Korea would make Kim's threats a lot less ominous.
Up until now, our foreign policy has been based on the belief that Kim is a reasonable guy. It hasn't worked. We need a strategy that does not involve hoping he does what we want him to do. It's clear that what we want Kim to do does not seem to be playing a big part in his decision-making process. A defensive strategy does not require his cooperation. That makes it a lot better than the alternatives.
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
# At Thu 4:04 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More Notes from Ferdy | Tags: China conservative Democrats economic sanctions France Japan Kim Jong-Il North Korea nuclear proliferation
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