Time for Thorns

Everyone’s all agog at the heroic rescue by Bill Clinton of his former vice president’s two reporters.   I’m glad that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are home,  but I want to know how they got captured.    Were they actually inside North Korea,  or just near the border,  and why?

We know that Dear Leader Kim Jung Il  got a picture with the former president,  who for once showed some grace by not looking delighted to be there.    The White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both deny that Bill was a White House envoy,  but that’s nonsense on stilts.

The real question is,  what else did His Oneness promise the NoKos?  The Wall Street Journal wonders if this was a mere downpayment.

Mario Loyola is a lot more hopeful about the effects of the UN resolution on North Korea than I am.    Of course,  the language is tougher and China agreed to it,  but it’s unenforceable,  and I fear that China is merely making the proper noises.

And with pitifully few exceptions,  the rest of the world seems perfectly content to whine and complain and blame the USA rather than actually doing anything about the problems.    I also think that the bad actors on the world stage have already measured His Oneness and judged him to be Bill Clinton’s twin,  full of rhetoric,  but  lacking the testicular fortitude to take direct action.

Obama may be the only one surprised that North Korea’s response is a threat to weaponize its plutonium.

As if an underground nuke test and a slew of missiles wasn’t sufficient, the NoKos have now threatened to sink US and South Korea ships if they carry through with their interdiction operation of ships carrying goods to North Korea.

A lot of  people seem surprised that the NoKos have declared themselves at war with their neighbor,  but remember that it was an armistice which was signed,  not a peace treaty.    This is also the perfect time to point out  that the UNITED NATIONS brokered that deal.    Tell me again why liberals think that cesspool of corruption is a shimmering pearl of competence?

Apparently the Russians reported the underground test as being the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,  but the initial seismic readings indicate it’s much smaller,  and in fact only slightly larger than the one  they generated in October,  2006.

Amb. Susan Rice said today that the US will rely on China to stop North Korea.   That,  boys and girls,  translates as we’re not gonna do a damned thing but express our concern.    The Obama administration is already promoting the theory that China doesn’t want to embarrass its client state,  and that it doesn’t want refugees at its border.    China doesn’t care about the NoKos’ losing face,  has no reluctance to kill,  and like the Russians,   is perfectly happy to have someone distracting the USA and consuming its time and attention.

The bottom line is that China owns so much US debt, and  Obama is so desperate for it to buy more to finance his mad spending,  that he can put no real pressure on China.   The only thing which may save us is that China does not want South Korea and Japan go nuclear.   Nor  does  it wish to lose  control of North Korea,   and it knows many regimes and entities pay handsomely for nuclear weapons and delivery systems.   Weaponry has long been the primary product of that miserable excuse for a country.

Nearly a week ago,  former Ambassador John Bolton warned that the NoKos would soon be testing nukes again,  since the Obama administration was,  according to U. S.  Special Envoy Stephen Bosworth,  “relatively relaxed” and feeling  “there is not a sense of crisis.”

North Korea took the green light it was given and tested,  and Obama’s response is to accuse it of “recklessly challenging”  world opinion.   His foreign policy seems to consist of speaking softly and carrying only a large carrot,  which is  an even worse extension of the last 15 years of bad foreign policy towards the NoKos.

Now it appears the NoKos have fired missiles as well, apparently being unimpressed with the brilliant rhetoric of His Oneness.    This cartoon brilliantly sums up what we know of Obama’s foreign policy thus far.

The first thing to remember is that China supplies North Korea’s food and fuel.  Is anyone stupid enough to think that the NoKo puppet would fire off a rocket without China’s consent?  It has long suited China very well to pretend to “help” the West with its supplicant client, while allowing it to take actions and spew threats which keep the West looking at the puppet instead of the puppeteer.

Former UN ambassador John Bolton called it right, first before the NoKo launch, and afterward, and delivers some well-deserved whacks to His Oneness, having practically invited the launch with his eagerness to resume the six-party talks.

Dan Blumenthal and Leslie Forgach delve into why Obama’s pathetic bleat of  “Let’s go to the UN!” harms our alliances in the region:

Israel has already figured out that His Oneness is a supremely unreliable ally.  Will Japan follow suit?

Obama gave a speech Sunday in the venerable Hradcany Square, just in front of the home to centuries of Czech leaders.

He used the occasion of the North Korean missile launch to make a push for a nuke-free world, then claimed he wasn’t naive because he knew it might take longer than his lifetime.  He couldn’t resist pointing out that America was the only country to have used nukes, and therefore we have a moral obligation to lead.

He also said we needed a missile defense system in Europe because of Iran.  Does His Oneness really think the Czechs don’t know that only a few days ago he offered to kill the scheme to protect them in exchange for Russia’s cooperation on Iran?

And he sees the worst legacy of the Soviet Union as the leftover nuclear materials scattered about.  I imagine the citizens of Hungary, Poland, etc. , would take issue with that assumption.

US intelligence agencies were quick to remind His Oneness that we needed new spy satellites yesterday, and after 4 years of inter-agency squabbling, and a foot-dragging Congress, we don’t have them yet.

Will we get them? Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are pushing hard for them, but in a Democratic Congress, I don’t like their chances, regardless of Obama’s newest two-step on the matter.

Japan announced yesterday that it would shoot down North Korea’s missile launch if any of its territory was threatened.

Could Japan do it?  They have a missile defense systems, jointly developed with the US, so it’s possible.

To me, the most interesting thing about the announcement is that it serves as a diplomatic warning to the Obama administration that Japan isn’t prepared to accept the “appease your enemies, betray your friends” stance displayed by His Oneness and Hillary! thus far.

The Japanese aren’t stupid, and they’ve already seen His Oneness talking pro-Israel and acting anti-Israel.  Adam Hasner lays that out neatly.