On...North Korea, Ya Gotta Love These Guys

56 year hiatus of the Forgotten War May be Over

Probably not, but I love the North Koreans. They are so sad and lonely. They are like the fat fifth-grader in the corner of the room desperate for attention. He breaks pencils and flicks them when the teacher steps out of the room. He farts and laughs like a hyena. He picks fights with second-graders and hides when eighth-graders stroll by. As long as he's sane there is nothing to fear, but if he's mad, well then get ready for a big mess. Their grand leader is mad, but hopefully everyone around him knows what consequences lurk around the corner.

The USA must protect South Korea and Japan, but we don't want a war. We have been playing a nice balancing act in the Pacific since 1945. We need to keep it that way. North Korea with nuclear weapons is a reality. That's a done deal, but threatening neighbors can not be allowed. And most importantly selling any such nuclear or missile technology cannot happen. If so we need to sink every ship out of North Korea. We need to let China know they need to get ahold of their leash.

Here's a bunch of ARTICLES on this subject.

Dan Blumenthal and Robert Kagan from WSJ: What to do About North Korea

David Sanger from NYTimes: Tested Early, Obama Has Few Options

Fred Kaplan from Slate.com: First, Take A Deep Breath

Robert Kaplan from Atlantic: North Korea, the Next Iraq?

Christian Science Monitor: Why Obama Can't be Soft with (You know who)

On...Various Stuff about our POTUS

Take these as you will.

I always want our nation to be successful and this goes for our President, but I wish him success if he handles things differently. For one I think he is too staged. I don't think he can handle a real back and forth with lots of curveballs [SEE the UK paper The GUARDIAN]. There will be events he can't prepare for, sit down and think about and sleep on. Professors are rarely generals. Especially when you must face down Russians, Koreans, and Persians.

Also I have real suspicion when it comes to his motives domestically. (Even beyond Socialism) It is beginning to seem that he desires real power as much as W but in a very different way. Not everyone has come down from Cloud 9 yet but I think they will see how much he is expanding presidential power to unheard of heights. He definitely sees power as something to use and he is just getting warmed up. [SEE WSJ and another Brit's take on power grabs] I don't think he understands business. He sees it as an outsider. He sees the possibilities and positives of capitalism, but he doesn't really grasp how it works and why it works. He's like a kid who finds this great toy but uses it all wrong then breaks it.

And lastly we'll see how Obama handles North Korea. This area I'm most concerned, not about our civil liberties, but our reputation for strength in the world. There will be one rookie mistake (beyond missile shields removal for peace) at least. I'd rather see it with NK than with Iran or Russia.

KOREAN ROCKET
Kim Jong-iL's Gamble
The Guardians Take on Historical Irony