Comments on: What President Obama Should (But Won’t) Do About North Korea’s Missile Test

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:39:16 +0000

I’d bet there could be some measured military response, if we had the guts, but we don’t even have it to apply sanctions. — Whatever military response we’d do, the North would be less constrained in answering back, but it would feel constrained. The US has shown in the past, like with Iraq, that if it really gets it in its mind to do something – it will go ahead and do it regardless of world opinion or internal political opposition.

US military action of a limited scale is also the most likely way we are going to get China to put the kind of pressure on Pyongyang we’ll need to see the North change.

I think interdicting North Korean shipping might be a way to go. That is there source of currency for most of the stuff it does that the UN has prohibitions on the books. It is also the best way to keep getting dirt on the North to put in front of the world media.

But, we won’t.

I’ll give the Obama administration kudos for being honest — in saying that we have to deal with the North as it is – not as we want it to be…

…..It says something about your administration when you don’t mind telling the entire world, especially after the North has just wiped your nose in shit, that you aren’t going to do anything…and believe you can’t — that you don’t have the stomach or the desire to stand up to one of the weakest provocateurs in the world — that you’ll respond to the latest provocation by sticking to what you’ve been doing before that has accomplished nothing tangible…

By: Osumashi Kinyobe

Osumashi Kinyobe — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:35:29 +0000

This might sound like a stupid question but is there anyway to neutralise Russia and/or China? Is it possible to remove them from their permanent seats on the security council? They’ve been backing North Korea since the Fifties and continue impeding action against this Stalinist state. North Korea can’t keep blackmailing the world forever.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:48:52 +0000

I think the title of this post should be, “The shot ignored ’round the world…”

By: GI Korea

GI Korea — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:20 +0000

Joshua great post and run down on what to do next. I don’t know if you saw but Newt Gingrich is going around saying Obama should have pre-emptively bombed North Korea. It seems to be the trend that when your party is out of power it is easy to make such recommendations.