Now we know what South Korea and the United States will do in response to the North Korean sinking of a South Korean Navy vessel; they are going to hold war games to show off their military capabilities to Kim Jong Il. In addition they will toughen already tough sanctions, to try and serve some sort of punishment in addition to the military show deterrent. Will it make any difference? I have absolutely no idea how that nut will respond to this strategy. Part of what makes that little person so dangerous in this big world is that he is pathologically insane and completely unpredictable.
For Canada's part, we really don't engage in any trade with North Korea, so we don't really have anything to pull from the table. The best we can do is publicly support South Korea and condemn the actions. I did some recent polling on this matter, but I did not include war games as an option. There are a lot of nerves over a potential North Korean full scale attack on the South if there is a military retaliation. Perhaps the concerns are justified and this strategy will work, I just can't predict a rational response from an unpredictable despot.
What is the most appropriate response to North Korea sinking a South Korean navy ship?
Military Strike (64%)
Tougher Sanctions (20%)
Tough Diplomacy (9%)
Pretend it Never Happened (5%)
I shall do my part in sanctioning North Korea by leaving the Dear Leader out of my prayers tonight before I go to bed.
ReplyDeletebtw, in your poll on "most evil leaders", you referred to the late great Ayatollah Khomeini, who is languishing in Islamic Heaven these days. His successor, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, is fairly evil,if we MUST get into that. PM Ahmadinejad is merely not-very-nice,and I see he didn't make your list,tsk. I hope he's not offended.
I voted for Barack Obama, as he's the only one who hides his agenda, the others are quite clear on theirs.
DMorris
This sawed off little Megalomaniac is unstable, unpredictable and yes dangerous too bad a tomahawk couldn't solve his problem. The really sad part is he has a large army ready to go, the major centers in the south are well within range of his artillery. I fear a lot of good people on both sides that have no real choice will suffer. The American Navy better be ready willing and able to respond with extreme prejudice.
ReplyDeleteI really don't see much difference between the two Ayatollah's. I Googled "Iran Ayatollah" and just cut and pasted the name. Normally I don't put much effort into the correct spelling of difficult to spell names. Oringally I was just going to put "The Ayatollah", but I think that was a WWF character back the day. Khomenei, Khamenei, same deal. Little difference between them.
ReplyDeleteIce,their Mothers might disagree with you! And seriously, you know I was just dissing ya, Mitchieville style,they're both fundamentalist maniacs that the world would be better off without.
ReplyDeleteWe ARE without the Ayatollah Khomeini,whom France saw fit to allow to live there in exile for about twenty years, before his triumphant return home to totally fuck up Iran. I'd hypothesize he's in Hell, but I doubt the Devil could stand the company of the SOB either.
The only WWF character I can think of is the "Iron Sheik",who wore curly-topped wrestling boots whilst insulting everything we hold near and dear.
What an actor!