Live Links and North Korea
rockass.net
It was late, past my bedtime at least. I figured one more refresh of Google News wouldn’t hurt. The top headline informed me that North Korea had tested their first nuclear weapon. This was huge. I needed to talk to my fiance about this. I ran the short distance from the front of my apartment to the back, but my sweetie was fast asleep with the television on.
Oh well, at least I’d have the TV to share this momentous occasion with me. But the local news lead story featured a talking duck, who seemed to be asking his “mama” for some “cheese.” … Did they not know what had happened, I wondered. Was it possible my local news station didn’t have access to the internet? … I was giving them the benefit of the doubt as I settled in to wait for them to become aware of the situation. The duck continued asking for cheese.
That’s when Lisa came on the screen. She was a very pretty and well-spoken woman with a beautiful smile and she was chatting on some kind of party line with a good looking blonde firefighter and a dark-haired sultry looking cop. The men too had wonderful smiles, but it was not tooth paste they were selling. Lisa paused her pleasant conversation to let me know that I could be talking to hundreds of attractive, successful singles, right now. I dialed the numbers on my screen and dug out my credit card.
Before I could find the stimulating conversation I sought I would have to record a greeting. “Hi, my name’s Keith, I’m eager to discuss the North Korean missile crisis.” I was too shy to do more than wait for someone to reply. I noticed the news anchors had moved on to a local shooting, but they’d check back in with the duck later. I think they were grooming him for a correspondent position.…
I was getting no responses, so I perused the outgoing messages. People were looking for all kinds of things, but a stimulating dialogue about North Korea moving ahead after pressure from a united China, Japan and South Korea had them seeming to back down, was not on the list of “kinks” being proposed. …
It was late, and my credit card limit is none too high. I decided to call it a night. Surely the White House will have responded by the time I wake for work, and my girl and I can discuss it all over our morning coffee, I figured. I wish I had a way to get in touch with that duck.
Nutcases with nukes
buckhornroad.blogspot.com
Can you imagine the nutcases in North Korea being in possession of operational nuclear weapons? Apparently, that scenario is now a reality. …
Time for a little Clinton bashing. It was Billy Jeff, and his idiot sycophants such as Madeleine Halfbright and Dimmy Carter who paid the blackmail in the form of a free nuclear power plant to North Korea back in 1994. The North Koreans promised that they would only use the plant to produce electricity … suuuuuure, that’s the ticket. This is what happens when you try to appease evil. It fails every time, and yet our gutless politicians keep on trying it. …
The ‘Great Game’
annika.mu.nu
I think it’s highly irresponsible for various pundits, mostly on the right, but some on the left, to suggest that we must respond to North Korea’s saber rattling with a military attack. It’s irresponsible because now that Kim Jong Il has a nuclear arsenal (assuming the tests weren’t faked) we can certainly expect that he will use it if attacked.
Two things are clear to me: We must use every effort to avoid war with North Korea, while at the same time we must use whatever means necessary to disarm Kim Jong Il. … While I think diplomacy is usually a complete boondoggle, there are options that can be and should be employed before we go charging in with guns blazing where a madman controls nuclear weapons.
The North Korean situation is similar to the Iranian one, but not identical. …
I think the reason China and Russia are willing to play along against Kim Jong Il is that the balance of power equation they are employing in Central Asia does not apply to the Korean Peninsula.
In other words, China and Russia have a strong interest in promoting Iran as a rival to U.S. power in the Middle East. It’s the latest incarnation of the “Great Game.” But the Asian powers have now realized that promoting North Korea as a balance to American Power in the Far East is a fool’s game.
The goal of balance of power politics is to maintain regional stability, and a nuclear armed DPRK upsets the status quo – not a good thing for China and Russia. …
Have a blog or know a regional blog we should be watching? Contact John Hughes.
