Timothy Birdnow

Doug Bandow, fellow at the CATO Institute, pens a strong essay at Conservative HQ in which he argues that war in Korea is not an option. I strongly disagree, not because I think it is a good option but because I fear it may be our only option. Doug seems to thinkk we can just walk away at this point. We can't.

Here is my reply to Bandow's essay:

Doug, normally a brilliant thinker, is wrong here; he believes we can just walk away from this and the problem will fade. Kim Jong Un isn't going to stop pursuing nukes; it's the key to his future and to maintaining power. And that is the key; our allies in the region can't simply build their own nukes, not when Kim is building ICBM's. He wants to threaten the U.S. so he can prove to the world and to his own people he can threaten the world's most powerful country. nuclear weapons in Japan aren't going to stop that.

Doug also fails to understand that N. Korea is being protected by both the Russians and chinese, who are using the Norks as a proxy to hurt the U.S. Just as in the old Soviet days we have to win in places like this, just as we fought the Soviets in Egypt, in Chile, in Iran, in Nicaragua and El Salvador. We managed to destroy the Soviet Union by doing this, and we can defeat the Chinese and Russians if we pursue a strategy similar to the one we employed then. And do not make the mistake of thinking China isn't pursuing a proxy war against us.

Withdrawal at this point will only embolden the Chinese and Russian. They - and the world - will see us as weakness.

Here's an article about the proxy war.
https://filipinojournal.com/u-s-china-proxy-war/weak.

Rearming Japan and arming S. Korea may have worked a decade ago, but not at this point.

Don't forget, too, that Iran and N. Korea share all of their efforts. Advancements by N. Korea mean advancements by Iran. We have to stop both of these twin serpent heads.

Distasteful and dangerous though it may be, we may have no choice at this stage. Our past Presidents and our amateur diplomats have left us with little choice.

Oh, and if Kim isn't suicidal then how do we force him to behave? Threats of war haven't worked, nor has diplomacy, nor economic sanctions. Kim is in a bind because he HAS to behave belligerantly or face being overthrown. It puts us in a bind as well, because there is little choice that gives us what we want, which is the end of the hermunculus' nuclear program. We will have to have international inspections and a strict zero tolerance policy. We can only impose that if we have a very big stick. Without the threat of invasion by the U.S. we won't get that. In fact, Kim cannot afford that at all lest he appear as weak as he really is.

War may well be our only option, or at least the brink of war. If anybody has a better idea now is the time to bring it forward.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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