Thursday, May 28, 2009

We’re Norks! We’re Nuke! Get Used To It!

OK, so North Korea is a nuclear power. We’re Norks! We’re Nuke! Get Used To It! The Norks also have ballistic missiles and will shortly learn how to put their weapons on top of their missiles. What’s a POTUS to do? ? Is calling on China to put pressure on their recalcitrant neighbor an option? Are you kidding? The PRC is loving every minute of this. They’ve got their own designs on gaining hegemony in the region and any trouble that comes to the US just plays into their hands.

Is the option of a pre-emptive strike on the Nork facilites viable? Well not to this president. Just the phrase “pre-emptive strike” will send Obama’s party and “netroots” supporters fleeing faster than a Frenchman hearing the word “hossenfeffer.” So that’s out. Will we urge South Korea to make the strike and absorb a probable large conventional counter-strike igniting a new war? Nah. The South is much more interested in appeasing their insane northern kin. So it looks like Obama’s stuck. Add all this to the fact that the Norks are holding hostage two American journalists and it is not a tremendous leap to imagine Obama getting bent over a barrel by the Norks. I don’t believe this president has anything in mind to actually stop the Norks. He’s signaled his willingness to accept a nuclear Iran, and now North Korea has grabbed its membership card in the nuclear power club, and Obama’s not going to do much more than express his “grave concern.”

But there is one thing the United States can push for that could cause another alteration to that region’s balance of power in favor of regional stability and nuclear deterrence. Japan should go nuclear. Yes peaceful, defense-only Japan, the only victim of two nuclear attacks, should announce to the world that they have gone nuclear. The Japanese are eminently pragmatic, and highly secretive when it comes to their own national interest. I really do not doubt that they have all the necessary technology and fissile material already developed, just waiting to be assembled. They could have a deliverable weapon ready in 48 hours. And such an announcement would be in the best interest of Japan’s defense. It is also conceivable that the Japanese have already done this, and are just remaining silent. Perhaps if Obama who is so adored on the international scene, could actually persuade another country (Japan) to help the US constrain North Korea, people may actually start having some confidence that he is more than a rhetorical gasbag.

One final thought. Now that the war in Iraq is a more positive situation than a negative one, the three largest problems facing US foreign policy are Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. And guess what former US President stands front and center at the heart of each one. Jimmy Carter. Mr Carter’s impotent fecklessness 30 years ago, in dealing with the Iranian Revolution, his non-reaction to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and his outright stupid dealings with the Norks during the Clinton administration gave each of these events the time and space to fester and become the dangerous problems we now live with. Mr. Carter has been nothing but incompetent meddler in international affairs both during and after his term in office.

5 comments:

SallyRags said...

I don't think having more nuclear weapons in the area is going to make things more stable, only more dangerous. North Korea may see Japan having nukes as a threat.

Auguste Ballz said...

The Norks should definitely feel that a retaliatory threat exists right in their own backyard. That is what will prevent them from using their nukes. MAD- Mutually Assured Destruction worked for over 40 years during the Cold War. And now it is the best alternative for East Asia.

CMB320 said...

Japan is no more dangerous having nukes than America is. This will also give China a few more things to think about. But what is really the great danger is the little Korean madman's willingness to sell anything to keep his brutal regime afloat

Commando said...

The reason the US didn't have to use nukes during the Cold War was because we had nukes. It will be the same for Japan.

HatePeanuts said...

It's going to be fun watching Carter stick his nose into Obama's business. The worst president ever screwing up his heir apparent. Wow, isn't life strange.

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