The evidence is in, and North Korea is guilty of launching a torpedo at a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 South Korean naval personnel. The minute the world heard a South Korean naval vessel exploded as if hit by a mine or torpedo, and since the North and the South are still on war footings, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what more than likely happened.
As usual the North, always good for an interesting spin on the events and bizarre diplomatic response, reacted to the evidence and “warned that any move to sanction or strike North Korea would be met with force. “If (South Korea) tries to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us …. we will answer to this with all-out war.”
The bluff and bluster is SOP from the pot bellied dog eatin’ Kim Jong-Il, but it’s the US response that really just slays me no end. In the AP story posted on Fox, “US State Department officials reacted cautiously Thursday, refusing to call the attack an act of war or state-sponsored terror. The Obama administration’s tempered response was an indication of how few options President Barack Obama has and how volatile the situation is.”
And the best part – “There’s no interest in seeing the Korean peninsula explode,”said P.J. Crowley, U.S. State Department spokesman.” Is it just me or does that seem to be almost French in it’s lameness? “No interest in seeing the Korean peninsula explode?” Is that the best this nation can come up with?
Okay, let’s see here. North Korea commits an act of war, an act of naked aggression against a nation they’ve had an uneasy truce with for 57 years, kills 46 of the other nation’s citizens, and then when named as the guilty party denies they did it – sorta – and then threatens to do worse if you don’t be nice to them in the future? Hmmmm . . . . now that is rather original and innovative if I do say so.
When your kid gets busted being a very bad kid, when confronted with their undoubted guilt, do they get to look at ya and reply, “If ya punish me I’ll do even worse!” and then your spouse looks at ya and says “Yeah Honey, no interest in seeing him explode . . . .” Is that the way to handle the situation if ya want a successful resolution? Blackmail isn’t all that pretty. And to my knowledge it always erodes to another blackmail demand.
The official US statement is also the quintessential example of political correctness. Appeasement. So yeah, sorta French.
I’ve said it before, and here we go again . . . “We’ve been here before.” That being the fact, I do admit North Korea is a unique riddle, a sort of nightmare kingdom where dragons might really reside. From what I understand from a buddy who was stationed on the DMZ in the late 70’s, it’s so cold there, and the fuel for warmth so scarce, that perhaps the fiery dragon’s breath is a welcome source of heat. They are mostly paper lion, unless one was one of the 46 South Korean sailors, or a citizen of North Korea – in that case your pretty much screwed.
The regime has a long history of “little toe in the water” aggressions followed by big talk, followed by quiet acquiescence to what would pass as normal behavior from North Korea. Usually their games are the protestations of a fat and very hungry screaming infant – as soon as ya give ’em the food or attention they demand in order that they shut up, they do shut up – for a little while anyway.
That slippery slope my title refers to is the one our nation is enjoying at present. Do others folks notice it’s one thing after another; a constant state of upheaval? It should be coined “The Litany of Misery Index.” Unemployment is up, the stock market takes another big tumble, Mexico’s president comes here to scold us for enforcing our own laws and Congressional progressives leap to their feet giving him standing ovations, our State Department likens the Arizona law to Human Rights violations in chatting with the Communist Red Chinese, and now North Korea, a nuclear North Korea, threatens “all out war.” I’d say the “Litany of Misery Index” grows longer.
And before I close, just an ancillary question . . . I know there are foreign journalists in Pyongyang. Is there a hotel in whole damn joint? Where are they staying? They are still working on that massive 105 story hotel they started to build in 1987 – NO MISPRINT – and it is projected to be finished in 2012, so . . . . If Pyongyang is even close to what I’ve heard about it, working in that bureau clearly constitutes combat pay. What do they eat? Any KFC’s in Pyongyang? Any T.G.I (insert Korean word for ‘Fridays’)? Just wondering.
SOURCES: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/19/skorean-president-vows-stern-action-nkorea-sinking-warship/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel
