Hot Potato

Well, North Korea's testing missles, ain't that a bitch? It must be really bad if the media is actually saying somethign about it. Really, how could they not, even thought they've already retreated to their fall back position that the White House says everything is hunky dory, nothing to see here. I mean someone had to see the missles and could not have possibly mistaken them for fireworks even if it was the Fourth of July in the US and bad ass kids (and adults) everywhere were keeping us awake with pops and booms, supposedly to remind us of the Spirit of '76 and really just keeping you awake and pissing you off if you had to go back to work on the 5th.

I must admit I only vaguely remember the first North Korean issue. I remember Jimmy Carter running off over there and some murmurs about Clinton getting ready to kick ass if need be but using Carter as his unwelcome diplomat (this article refutes this scenario quite well and that alone makes it a must-read).

This article, written in 1994 by one Fred Kaplan writing for the Washington Monthly is a great bit of backstory on the whole shebang-a-bang. It's long but I kid you not, it reads like a Tom Clancy novel in brief. After reading it I felt several emotions. First I was pissed off at George Bush (but that's usual) because it seems the only thing keeping him from dealing with this head on is own arrogance and unwillingness to actually be the friggin President.

It also left me with a shred of hope that maybe we can head off nuclear war or at least a nuclear stand-off or at least proliferation. However considering this article was written two years ago and even then, the author claims things had gone to far, I can't help worry a tiny bit that America has yet again, completely fucked up yet another diplomatic situation and let it escalate into impending war.

And with our troops already stretched to the breaking point, we may just have let our mouths write a check our asses can't cash. Whatever happened to "Speak softly and carry a big stick"? This President, talks big and randomly destroys the country without the nukes and dangerously ignores the country that DOES have the nukes and is like "yeah, we have 'em, so what?"

Ah, well. I'm not the President, so what the hell do I know right?

Rolling Blunder: How the Bush administration let North Korea get nukes.