It really is sad when life imitates "Team America: World Police." But it is. Kim Jong-il has distracted us all. From the CFR, to "Condi Rice's stenographer of choice" at the New York Times Helene Cooper, to William Arkin over at the Washington Post to Dr. Lewis, and even our Star Wars missile shield (help me Obi-wan, you're my only help!) is getting another victory lap, even though its systems are, well, shall we say, vulnerable?
But what is really going on here? Do the North Koreans just want our attention? Are they really going to launch a three stage missile that can reach the heartland of America? Or are they setting the stage so that they can demand the same deal that Iran might soon get?
I've lived in South Korea and seen behavior like this in group settings. In my opinion, it's a combination of all three: they want the same deal Iran gets, are willing to do what it takes to get our attention and might possible launch some kind of missile that no one can really identify with any serious accuracy. Kim Jong-il and associates are watching closely to see what an overstretched US military, an out of gas Presidential Administration and an hungry for oil Japan will give Iran (if anything at all) and they are making it clear that they will settle for nothing less than the same. And there is little we can do about it.
Why?
As William Arkin writes:
Amidst an Iraq withdrawal debate and an Iran nuclear crisis, amidst a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and a grave threat to the Kabul government, amidst growing recognition of al-Qaeda gains in Pakistan, The We-Still-Can't-Resist-Putting-Any-Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction-Story-on-the-Front Page Times (David Sanger anyone? ~spk) reported intelligence leaks yesterday that North Korea was imminently going to test an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Fine pickle you've gotten us into Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and Ms. Rice. Can you please get us out now? We're really more interested in white women who've been abducted lately anyway.
Oh wait, Think Progress has identified our solution: Administration Responds to North Korea Missile Stunt With Missile Defense Stunt
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 4
Nuclear poker being played by politicians on both sides who have all the technical skills of a 1950's B science fiction movie. it's like giving a kid a hammer, putting him in a room full of fine china unchaperoned, and telling him to "be careful".
Detonating an EMP weapon a few miles over North Korea would blow out all their power candles and fry alltheir electronics. Nice thing about these weapons is that the only fingerprint they will leave is ther results of their use.
Boo Hoo for the bad guys. The wolrd is a dangerous place and we are a target because we stand up to the bullies of the world .
It is odd that the most outspoken anti-American musing come from within the USA. Why? Is it a guilt trip? I have no qualms about being the most powerful nation on Earth. We ara a good people , but freedom does not come without a price. The attacks we endured were due to a policy of inaction over a nubmer of years, emboldening terrorisits to go ahead and whack us. Don't cry when we have to tak eupo arms and defend out freedom.
Oh yes Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and Ms. Rice were trigger happy but if you study your history you will learn that force is the only thing that bullies understand.
Unfortunately Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and Ms. Rice were leading the wrong team into this Super bowl of history. Can you imagine a quarterback calling the right play and catching the other team flat footed but just as he gets ready to make the winning pass his own offensive linemen converge on him and knock him to kingdom come?
Well that is what happened to Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and Ms. Rice. Just as the bullies were ready to fold the media and the democrats went after them and did the work the thugs and the terrorists could have never done. They turned America into an impotent country club rather than a force to be feared. The democrats scored their political points. They turned the guys that were our last hope into a joke and a byword but the bill for such treason is coming due.
The thugs have figured out that Bin Lading was right to consider Americans cowards who will run away crying the moment they get a bloody nose. His only miscalculation was to launch his attack while a Texan with guts was in the white house.
Go ahead and blame Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and Ms. Rice if you wish. You cannot change history. The Bush doctrine was defeated in America by the democrats and the media not in the battlefield. You got your man in the office, why don't you trust him to get you out of the mess now?