Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Tyrants, Treaties, And The Unbearable Naivety of Barack Obama

Are we headed for war once more on the Korean peninsula?  Ralph Peters is shitting bricks:

I’ve dismissed past North Korean threats as pathetic pleas for attention. But things have begun to feel different.

My greatest concern is that Kim Jong Un, a pampered, sheltered young man, may not have a grip on reality. He may not know how hollow his own regime has become or how limited his strategic reach truly is.

It’s all too possible that yes-man generals, concerned for their own privileges, may have exaggerated North Korea’s military and nuclear capabilities to their young leader. He may actually believe he could strike America — and that his large-but-decrepit army is invulnerable.


Seems a good read on the Nork's adolescent-in-chief (hey! Just like we have!), as Kim Jung Un is tearing up the treaties

Following a week of aggressive rhetoric from North Korea, the government's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported Monday that the armistice suspending the Korean War had been "declared invalid."


So what's our response the unraveling of the last vestiges of sanity in North Korea?

The Obama administration counters that Pyongyang lacks the legal authority to abrogate the truce unilaterally...



Yeah, and Hitler didn't have the legal authority to tear up the Treaty of Versaiiles, or the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact ( aka the German-Soviet nonaggression pact).  The 1973 Yom Kippur war began when both the Egyptians and the Syrians unilaterally  crossed previously agreed-upon ceasefire lines.  I'm not sure that Japan had the legal authority to bomb Pearl Harbor, but they did so anyway.

Anwar Sadat, abrogating the peace in 1973, despite his lack of legal authority...


I am sure, should North Korea attack Seoul, we can count on Barack Obama - to write a strongly-worded letter, citing legal precedent and international law, proving without a doubt that the Norks acted both unlawfully and precipitously.

For all the good it will do the dead...

1 comment:

LibertyAtStake said...

The ironic thing is the Korean penninsula is all set up for serious "nation building" just when the US lacks the stomach for it.* If the North foolishly starts a war, the US and the South will end it quickly. The active part of the counter-attack will necessarily be a lightning shock and awe type regime change invasion to remove the nuclear threat entirely. Then there are two paths - (1) turn the North completely over to Beijing's management (if they want it), or unify the penninsula under Seoul's management. Either way the people of the North are better off than under the lunatic Kim dynasty. The key is a little diplomacy 101 to make sure Beijing knows up front they have the choice on the end game. *fn: I've argued against "nation building" in both Iraq and Afghanistan and believe history is proving me right.