For anyone who has been in a hole today, the President got a call at 3:55am regarding a brewing international crisis centering on North and South Korea. As would be expected, Obama rolled over and went back to sleep claiming he’d “deal with it later.” I don’t necessarily know that the last part happened, but it’s a safe speculation.
News sources are telling us that South Korea was conducting regularly scheduled military exercises near the disputed border with its northernly neighbor when North Korea demanded that they cease said exercises immediately. South Korea gave them the proverbial finger and continued the drills. North Korea then shelled the crap out of a South Korean island killing 2 South Korean Marines and injuring several civilians. South Korea fired back and said, “Okay, we’re even now. If you do it again, it’s on like Donkey Kong”, or something to that effect.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Obama did not say anything about these events. There wasn’t an immediate formal statement, reprimand, press conference, or anything from Barack Obama. Let me be clear: I do not think this is a problem. In fact, I think it was a wise decision. While I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Obama’s decision to make, I’m glad someone made it. Before you go getting your panties in a twist about me agreeing with something this White House did, let me explain.
North Korea has an inferiority complex. It’s the under-achieving, low life slacker child of the two Koreas. They're mad because South Korea has seen success with a democratic, capitalist system. They're ticked off because the border wasn’t drawn where they wanted it to be at the end of the Korean War. Above all, they're irritated that they aren’t the global super power they want to be. It's like they want so desperately to be Darth Vader, but all they can muster is Dark Helmet. “Raspberry!”
So they act out. All the time. With provocative, violent methods in an effort to keep the international spotlight on them. The idea of direct talks with the United States gives them the warm fuzzies. They were hoping that an attack on South Korea would lead to a serious reprimand from the U.S., to which they would respond and, thus, enter into a “conversation” with Obama. Just like a child throws a fit in a store to get what he wants, North Korea uses something explosive to seek attention. Then again, maybe Kim Jong-Il is just looking for a friend; after all, he is "so ronery."
I should go on to say that Obama did state that “North Korea is a serious and ongoing threat that must be dealt with”, although no specifics were given as to how he intended (or didn’t intend) to deal with it.
Here is my issue with North Korea and Obama:
The world does not see Obama, his administration, or subsequently, the United States as a threat. After all of the speeches, lectures, apologies, and excuses, the credibility of the United States has been brought into question thanks to Obama. Nicolas Sarkozy called us “weak”. When the President of France sees you as more of a doily than he is, you know it’s bad. North Korea knows it can’t send a nuke to American shores, but it’s sure going to test the strength of the US/South Korean alliance. After witnessing Obama turning his back on Israel and the UK, it’s only natural (and logical) for North Korea to assume the US is no threat via South Korean alliance.
While this is frustrating, there is a bigger problem at hand:
We are potentially looking at the threshold of Cold War, Part II. And, no, I’m not fear mongering - I spent my time in college studying Asian politics and history so this is my academic analysis:
North Korea is a communist state. Guess who else is? Their neighbor, China. You see, North Korea is nothing but a land mass without China. The Chinese not only influence North Korea's policies, but also fund their military and sustain their economy. North Koreans find refuge in China both figuratively and literally. Essentially, North Korea is just an annex of China. I won’t go so far as to say a puppet and puppet master only because the North Koreans truly believe they are in control of their own destiny. Ignorance is bliss I guess.
Anyway, guess who used to be an "extension" of another country? That’s right: China. In the 1940’s when the future Chairman Mao was rising to power, guess who supplied him with knowledge, support, money, and weapons? Russia, or the Soviet Union as it was then. Because there is less than a degree of separation between socialism and communism, the common goal for these folks isn’t socialism OR communism, it’s either or - as long as it’s not capitalism - so communists and socialists are more often than not each other’s allies.
So, here we have history repeating itself. I love it when that happens because it makes history relevant when so many are so quick to turn their backs on it... And I’ll step off of my soap box...
Anyway, so here we have the remnants of the Cold War throwing rocks at the country that put them where they are today. Think about who else is in the shamed club: Afghanistan. Ohhhh, things are about to get interesting. For those of you who didn’t take a whole class devoted to the Cold War, the Soviet Union came rushing to the aid of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to provide them with weapons, intelligence, manpower, and supplies for a total of 11 years until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Who would love to hand us our lunch? Hamid Karzai and Osama Bin Laden.
I'm guessing y'all didn’t have to map out the region a bazillion times, I should tell you that Afghanistan shares borders with China, Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Note that those three obscure counties ending with “-stan” are former members of the Eastern Bloc and, while some claim to be “democracies” or “republics”, they are shaky at best and blatant totalitarian states at worst.
The fact of the matter is we aren’t exactly BFFs with any of these countries. In fact, they all want to destroy us physically or economically, or both. This is the problem. Ronald Reagan isn’t around to stand up for America. Barack Obama is here to stand aside.
So to all of you socialist / communist states out there waiting for the right opportunity to strike, don’t worry - you won’t get any trouble from Barack Obama. As for the American people, we’ll give you the kind of hell you can only imagine in your worst nightmares; the nightmares that wake you in a cold sweat, shaking, and crying out for mercy. We The People will never back down from a fight, so think long and hard before you do anything stupid.
Recent Comments